


Out of the Walls and into the Apocalypse

by eagle_feather_2014



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, F/F, F/M, M/M, Reincarnation AU, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-09-08 12:15:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 28,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8844655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eagle_feather_2014/pseuds/eagle_feather_2014
Summary: A reincarnation AU of Attack on Titan set in a new life where a zombie apocalypse has occurred out of the blue.Will have foul language and may have sexual content/graphic violence in later chapters. Rating could be bumped up at a later date. Chapters with an asterisk (* this thing) are chapters that are content heavy and may hold triggers. These chapters have summaries at the end of the chapter that are non-descriptive of the acts in the chapter and allow you to skip the chapter and continue with the story with little to no information missing.On hiatus for review, alteration, and redirection! Keep an eye out for this story to pick back up and take on a serious direction!  No matter the form they came in, human or animal, they had exceptional hearing and they were drawn to it like moths to a light, except these “moths” could tear the “light” limb from limb.





	1. Chapter One: Hanji, Levi, Mike, Petra

The empty shell clattered and clicked loudly in the dead of the camp as gunsmoke drifted into the air of the sniper’s post. A body dropped in the distance with a gurgled groan and the shell was kicked from the post into a bucket below, noisy in it’s new home among the many others. Silence held the camp for a good long minute, a rule so the person in the post could see and hear undividedly. An infected was bad enough, but the worst part was that they were drawn by noise.  
Many were blind.  
Many were crippled.  
Many were fast.  
Many were strong.  
No matter the form they came in, human or animal, they had exceptional hearing and they were drawn to it like moths to a light, except these “moths” could tear the “light” limb from limb.  
The minute passed and they heard a double tap from the post and they breathed a sigh of relief. The coast was clear.  
Petra sighed as she looked up at the treehouse that sat in the branches of a large pine, way up above the camp they had. Their camp was an old military hideout, buried in the forest with a wall around it, a sniper’s post treehouse up above for protection at the post where the heavy metal doors latched shut to lock the camp off from the world. They’d gotten lucky. Petra had known about this place and they were even more lucky that Hanji’s truck was a flatbed where they could pile in and speed away when the outbreak happened. They’d been even more lucky to be in the same place at the time. Normally, Levi would have been at the tattoo shop and Mike at his house, asleep. Levi had the day off and crashed Hanji’s biochem class, Petra had been in the class, and Mike was down the hall in his english class getting help on an assignment during his professor's office hours.  
When the school went on lockdown, they had been in the same wing. When the first infected got in, they had been together.  
They ran like hell when they saw a security guard take down and bite into a student. It was the titans all over again, and they weren’t staying around to die. They ran while everyone else cowered. Hanji had never been more thankful that Levi carried a pocket knife and a handgun at all times. She took the knife and he took the gun and they cut down the ones that crossed their path on the way to the dinged up red truck out in the teacher’s parking lot. 

_“What the fuck is happening,” he shouted and Mike pushed Petra to keep running as she stopped to stare in horror at an eviscerated corpse in the hall. Levi took up aim and shot down one that made a grab at Hanji while they fought with their keys to unlock the door to get from the building. “Hanji!”_  
_“What?” She swore as she pushed the door open and held it open as Petra, Mike, and Levi ran out before slamming it shut and locking it again. Mike grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the way as an arm bashed through the window of the door._  
_“We need to keep moving,” he growled and she nodded, clambering up and darting towards her car, tossing the keys to Levi who was at the front of the group. He caught them and clicked the left button, unlocking the doors and jumping in the front seat as everyone piled into the flat. He got in and got it started in a matter of seconds, body shaking with adrenaline. The tires screeched as he threw the car into reverse and backed out of the parking space before hitting the gas and speeding from the campus._  
_“Oi, Shit Specs,” he called as he used a hand to slide open the window to the back, creating a passage for them to talk through as he tore down the city roads and onto the back roads. She shifted from the back of the flat to sit by the window. “Any idea what the hell is going on?”_  
_“I have some theories, but right now, we need to find someplace to hide in safety._  
_“I know a place,” Petra added and began giving directions, swapping places with Hanji and peered in the window and talked with Levi, guiding him to the old military hideout in the forest behind the endangered animal reserve where she volunteered. The place was old and abandoned, but they made it work, using Hanji’s flatbed and Levi’s aim to raid places in the town, a place already overrun with the infected. Mike lent his strength to load the truck on raids and Petra lent her skills to keep the camp livable. ___

__

“Petra,” Mike called and the girl started before looking over at the man sitting at the doused fire pit they have sitting by the kitchen building as Hanji was ducked under an open cabinet, covered in oil and rust as they tried to hook up some electricity to the kitchen. It was three weeks since that day, and Hanji was worried about the lack of light in the nights. There were spotlights and security lights lining the wall around them, but they were inoperable due to a break in power. No electricity, no light. Nothing that a scientist couldn’t fix. She was the youngest professor in the state, having graduated high school in their freshman year. She was an academic genius, and she was determined to use what they had raided from the hardware store in town to get electricity and power running through their camp.  
“Yes, Mike?” He motioned for the girl to come over and he patted the spot on the log next to where he was sitting. He sat in silence with her for a moment before speaking, voice rough and low, trying to keep their partner in the camp from hearing. Hanji would be obnoxious if she knew at the moment.  
“Do you remember Nanaba?” His tone was hopeful and she nodded, listening eagerly. They all remembered the life they had before, and they all remembered the friends they had lost. “Well, I know where she is,” he admitted and she grinned and lit up. Mike and Nanaba had been a couple back in the corps, and they had found each other again.  
“Where is she? Think she’s alright?” He nodded and a joy welled up in her chest. She stood up and grinned. “Then let’s grab the keys and go!”  
“Petra,” he warned and the girl looked down at his somber look. She settled down and sat back down, not understanding why Mike wouldn’t want to go rescue his girlfriend. “She’s married.”  
“Are you kidding me?” She gaped as the man ran a hand through his hair.  
“Wish I was. She moved on; married a marine. I found her when I studied abroad in America, remember that?” She nodded and rested a hand on his back. The man had just wanted to talk. Levi had never noticed that the pair had been a couple and Hanji would insist they go get her or talk horribly about her for abandoning him since she hadn’t given up on finding Erwin. “I miss her,” he admitted and Petra felt her heart go out to him. She’d been ready to give Levi everything in her past life in the corps… only to find out in this life that he’d been gay all along and that he and Eren were a couple. Levi wasn’t sure if Eren was out there, and he daren’t let himself hope. The same went for Isabel and Farlan.  
“She made her choice,” she began, careful of her words. He looked to her and her soft, realistic eyes bore into him. “I know that you don’t want to, but now you need to make yours. Do you cling onto a life in the past or do you fight for the life of the present?” He sighed before giving her a smile. They leaned on each other in these hard times, and this outbreak of infected was certainly hard, and they had been lucky thus far. He thanked her and got up when he heard Levi call his name. The smaller man was tired, and it was Mike’s turn to take the post while the once Humanity’s Strongest tried to sleep in a world overrun with creatures of titan instinct and human size while Hanji fought with the wiring and electrics and Petra looked over their supplies and planned where to raid next based on their needs. 


	2. Chapter Two: Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Marco

The roads weren’t safe, but the forest wasn’t either. Nowhere was. Safety in numbers didn’t matter anymore. It was safety in sight and sound now, and that put Eren at a disadvantage with his heterochromia messing with the color of the world, blending shades and tinting it. Gold and green eyes made him stand out from the world, but he supposed it helped. It was the only thing that had made Armin look at him twice, and if he hadn’t, then they would have never recognized each other, both thinking the world with human eating giants to be a bad dream that never ended. Mikasa hadn’t shown until high school, a transfer student from Asia, and it hadn’t taken long for the trio to spend all their free time together and relish in the new, free life they had. Senior year had been when all hell broke loose and the infection began. They had piled into Mikasa’s car and taken to make it to the freeway, only to get into an accident with Jean and Marco on a motorcycle. Their rides had been wrecked and they took to the forest as a group, looting bodies they found to protect themselves.  
“How’s the bite, Eren?” They were resting at a gas station for the night, miles from where they were when the outbreak began, but they couldn’t rest for long. The only thing they know now was that they had to keep moving if they wanted to live. They had barred the doors to the station and were surprised to see the place only partially looted, but their jaws dropped when they looked in the back room and saw it completely wiped of supplies, only a bunch of shipping pallets lying out in the dark. Someone had left the majority of the station alone but took the easy to transport sets if you had a car. “Is it any worse?”  
“Nope,” he informed as he pulled down the bandana he wore around his mouth and over his nose that had a pattern that was identical to the jaw of his titan form in their past life. He untied it in the back and set it on his lap as Mikasa took his jaw in her hand, looking over the bubbled and welted bite mark. It was whitened by time and clean looking, but it was still a bite mark that looked brand new, only scabbed over. It hadn’t gotten any worse or any better in three weeks, and that was all the evidence that they needed that he was immune. The only issue was that the bite wouldn’t allow them to join another group as they would check for bites and kill Eren. No one else would risk it, but Armin had. He had reasoned that he may be resistant or immune in the same way that he had been a titan in the past. Jean gave him three days, if he turned in that time, well… 

 

 _“Three days. If he turns, I’m putting a bullet between his eyes and the eyes of anyone who touched him in the time frame.” The gun in his hand was the only one they had, and there were only five bullets. Jean had pulled it from a wrecked car, the sound attracting an infected, one that pinned Eren and bit into his lower jaw. It only took Jean a second and one bullet to save Eren’s life from the beast on him, and he would do it again to take his life from him if he was a threat to the group. The others agreed solemnly._  
_Day one passed and Eren was fine, and they moved to an abandoned house to hole up until the fourth day. On the fourth day, they would leave, with or without Eren. Jean sat across from him in the bedroom of the little girl that had once lived here while the others sat in the front room listening to the television. Jean had heard enough to know that this infection was all over the globe and that no cure had been found. That was all he needed to know, really, as the leader of the group. His nerves were the only steel ones in the group right now. Usually, Eren could rival him in that category, but with the bite on his face, he was a terrified wreck, and not because of Jean and his gun. He’d tried to kill Mikasa as a titan once, what was to say that he wouldn’t try as a zombie?_  
_“Jean,” he called and the boy hummed his acknowledgement. His finger was fiddling the trigger, the safety on. It would only take a second to flip on and aim, and it was safe for him to risk that with Eren at the distance he was. “If… If I turn. Shoot me. The minute I stop responding, shoot me. Don’t let me become one of those things… Don’t let me hurt them.” The boy was shaking as he held himself. He was scared, but he knew that this was how it had to be. “Promise me that you’ll protect them. Promise that you’ll protect them from **me.”**_  
_Jean nodded and flicked the gun open and counted the bullets. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. The sixth in the head of the zombie that bit Eren. “I already promised myself to keep them safe. So, I can promise you now that I_ **will** keep them as safe as I can.”  
**“Thank you.”**  
_Day two found Eren twitching and jumpy, but still completely responsive. Most people turned in hours, Eren was 30 hours in and only now starting to show any possible signs of turning. Again, Jean sat across from him as Armin and Marco made lunch from what was in the kitchen. It was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the third meal in a row. “How’re you feeling?”_  
_“I can’t stop shaking,” he admitted and Jean flicked the safety off silently. “How many hours am I at, right now?” His hands shook where they griped his knees with white knuckles, balled up against the wall in the corner away from the door as Jean sat against the wood._  
_“Thirty and half hours, now,” he informed and Eren breathed a sigh and nodded his head. “Marco said they found a map in the parent’s bedroom. We’re in a big city with a great expanse of forest on the land. He noticed a college nearby. There’s also a military base. We plan to try and see if they’ll make good bases once we’re done here.”_  
_“Think it’ll work?” He knew what jean meant. They were looking at finding a place to stay; it’d be easier to protect them on his own if they were able to settle._  
_“We can hope,” he stated, and Eren nodded in agreement. There was no guarantee anymore, but they could hope. “The military base looks promising. The only problem is if there is someone already camped out there.”_  
_“It’s entirely possible.”_  
_“We’ll start with the college, it’s more likely to be abandoned.”_  
_Day three found Eren coughing up blood as the bite bubbled and mutated, but never spread. It was odd. By now, the infection should have taken over his whole face and he should be making growling and clicking sounds rather than pained words. “It’s not spreading.”_  
_“Doesn’t mean I can’t hurt anyone.”_  
_“I never said that. It’s just not spreading. Eren, it’s mutated on your skin. You have survived twenty four times as long as any person should.” The boy coughed and blood splattered on his hand. He faced his palm towards the bicolored haired boy, and Jean grew concerned. “Does it hurt?”_  
_“Yeah,” he forced out and Jean looked him over. His shirt was covered in blood from his coughing and the few infected that they had killed over the weeks. They’d been lucky to avoid hoards unlike the many news stations were reporting occurring all over the globe in large cities. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and bagged in a sickly black and yellow, the same bags of the infected._  
_“It doesn’t hurt in your head does it? It infects your brain,” he informed and Eren shook his head._  
_“It’s just my throat and lungs.” Eren curled up further into himself. “Do you think I’m a threat yet?”_  
_“I’ll decide tomorrow.”_

 

“It still looks identical to two weeks ago. I’m glad Jean didn’t shoot you when you started coughing up blood.” It would have sucked if he had been shot for swallowing something that had cut the inside of his mouth and his allergies getting worse. They all were glad. Eren was their best fighter with the axe they had found and he was good at listening for infected, even if he couldn’t see them very well. “Cover it up,” she stated as a motorcycle zipped by. It was a silver color with a white and blue winged emblem blazing on the side as it zipped by and down the street.  
“Everyone get down, let’s try not to get seen.” 


	3. Chapter Thee: Isabel, Farlan

The town was abandoned, an infected here and there, the majority gathered on the campus of the once prestigious College of the Sciences and Arts and in business buildings scattered around town. She clutched her arms around his waist as the wind whipped by the pair of them as he drove them towards the auto store that was in the town, a place he used to stop by and get his baby fixed up on his trips to and from his college and Isabel’s house. He had gone to a college seventy mile south of this one, never having the grades to even dream of getting accepted into CSA, settling for the engineering and auto mechanics trade school down the freeway. Some guy named Mike was always the one to fix up his bike, a tall blond man with a lack of social skills, but a nice enough guy as it was. He asked if he knew him once and Farlan had been taken aback; he didn’t recognize the giant. Sure he looked familiar, but a lot of people gave him that feeling. After that, Mike didn’t ask him any further, probably deciding that he had mistaken him for someone else.  
He parked outside the auto shop and Izzy hopped down from behind him, pulling her gun from her holster. “Shoulda known that you and I would get stuck together at the end of the world,” she joked and he laughed, picking a brick from the ground and telling her to be ready. He bashed the window of the shop door in and she yelped in shock. “I swear to god, Farlan! Tell me when you plan to destroy something! Don’t just say ‘be ready!’ One of these days I’m going to shoot you because I thought you were an infected that broke something!” He smiled and ran inside, finding his way around the back and got the shop door open. She jumped as she heard a door shut down the road. “I heard something!”  
“See anything?” He called as he pushed his bike into the shop garage. They had an issue with the motor and they needed it to get to Westport where a safety zone had been established very quietly. It wasn’t broadcasted on the air, but they had their connections in the underground from his time as a drug dealer.  
“No! I think it’s bandits,” she informed and he swore.  
“Shoot to kill, Izzy,” he informed and she cursed before unloading her gun and reloading it completely, kissing the final bullet before snapping her revolver shut and aiming. She edged out into the street slowly, steadily as her leather boots clicked on the pavement as her hands held the gun steady. She saw a head peek up from the stone of the gas station down the road and she leveled a shot.  
_Bang!_


	4. Chapter Four: Erwin, Moblit, Ymir, Christa

“You girls alright?” _Bang! Bang!_ He offered a hand and bodily pulled her to her feet as Moblit helped the other to her feet as well. _Bang! Bang!_ He swore and pushed the girls behind a car and ducked behind it after them as Moblit ducked behind a gas pump.  
“Yes, thank you, Commander,” she replied sweetly before squeaking when a bullet nearly hit her as Ymir pulled her close and shielded her with her body. He stood up really quick and fired off a round of shots in quick succession before ducking back down. A shot followed his and Ymir swore, blood streaming down her arm as the bullet grazed her arm.  
“Moblit, shoot!” His call successfully distracted their attacker and he shot off once at the last man standing and the man was struck through the temple, collapsing in the street as dropped dead weight. “Let me see your arm, Ymir,” he asked as Moblit got up and went down the street to search for others and loot bodies. It was morbid, living this way. He almost missed fighting titans and flying through the air over shooting guns at infected and bandits. A man had grabbed Christa, and an ambush ensued. How they had won against seven guys with only two men with guns, very inexperienced men with guns low on ammo -mind you-, they’d never know. They were just thankful that all was well and a graze on one of the girls was all they had suffered. “Nothing bad, here,” he took a handkerchief from his pocket and tied it around the wound. “That’ll have to do until we can find you a med kit.”  
“We’re clear, Erwin! How did we manage?” Erwin motioned for the girls to stay down as he stood up to look at Moblit pulling a baseball bat with nails dug into it from the hand of a bandit. He searched the next body and found a dagger on them. “You and I have never shot a gun before now,” he laughed sarcastically. “Erwin and Moblit, the commander and the glorified babysitter have never shot guns before the things trying to eat us were our size.” The man shook his head and ran the back of his palm across his face to wipe his bangs from his vision before walking over to them, carrying the bloodied bat and old knife in his other hand.  
“Life works in odd ways,” he stated, brushing off the observation as he scanned higher buildings for a sniper, finding nothing to suggest there were others among them. He turned from the assistant to offer the sweet blonde girl a hand in getting up, swiftly raising her and Moblit asked for the attention of them.  
“They shouldn’t be defenseless, not with bandits tailing us. Christa got grabbed, unarmed and weak, this time. What if they succeed next time in taking one of us? They need weapons for defending themselves,” Moblit stated as he lifted the knife up and handed it to his once commander. Erwin looked over the switch blade and nodded. It was a nice one, and it would fit the girl well. It was light, swift, and sharp, perfect for a small girl like her to carry and use should she need to kill or injure to protect herself, and in this world, they needed that.  
“Christa, ever used one of these?” She looked apprehensively at the blade in Erwin’s hand.  
“No, sir,” she replied and he nodded, fixing his gun back into his holster before taking her hand and fitting the blade into her grip.  
“It’s not hard, and hopefully you won’t have to use it. You just hold onto the handle like this,” he positioned her hands steadily in their new place. “Then, you do either a thrust in the direction of what you intend to hit or you make a sweeping motion with your hand turned.” She bit her lip and practiced on the empty air next to them, her motions fluid and strong. “Just like that, good job. Now, flip it shut by pushing down on the flat end of the blade and moving your thumb from across the slot it slides into,” he guided her hands and she shut it. She hummed and flicked it open fluidly before shutting it in practice. “Just like that. If anyone ever grabs you, dig that into whatever you can reach. It may not do much damage, but it could buy you time to run or hide, and that’s what you need.” She nodded and stashed the pocket knife into the front of her jeans and took a deep breath, asking her nerves to settle.  
The infected were a completely different type of awful than the titans, but the bandits were the worst. War was not a part of their life before. Bread Riots and protest were common in outer districts, but never war. Murder, yes, but war? Never. They had never seen a person draw up arms in mass numbers against others in arms, and these bandits were the closest to first-hand experience that they had ever gotten. It was terrifying in a whole new way. They were terrified when they sat on their horses as the gates rose and they charged into titan infested lands, but this was a whole other kind of terrified. People were killing people just to kill.  
“You think you can handle something like this, Ymir?” Erwin turned and watched as Moblit approached the brunette. He stared at the bat. It was a sick desecration of something meant to hit a ball, not to bash a skull in. The kids down the street from where he had lived used to play baseball in the street, now Ymir would be using that bat to kill when others tried to kill her or Christa. She nodded and took it from him when it was offered, turning it over in her hands, feeling out the weight of it. “We’ll look for something that is more suiting for you, but I didn’t feel comfortable with continuing on towards Westport with you two unarmed.”  
“I agree. You two needed to be armed. As much as I hate that this world requires young ladies like yourselves to have to kill, it’s how things are and I would rather you be able to defend yourself if there is a need. Now let’s get going, we need to find a car by sundown if we can.”


	5. Worlds Collide

“Did you hit anything?” She strained her eyes as her boyfriend looked at her with apprehension. The glass of the gas station down the road had shattered as she shot at what had looked like a head peeking up, but there was nothing there now. She took a step forwards and tried to focus on if there was any motion now. The slightest whisper of breathing chests or crinkle of glass off of a crouched back. Anything would do. She was on edge after being ambushed the town back. Had they followed her? She saw a soft motion by the bricks and shot at it again, barely missing Marco’s back as he crouched, Jean’s hand over his mouth keeping him from crying out in fear. Armin was crouched with Mikasa and holding onto her arm, shaking as they watched Eren slowly creep through the shadows and get closer.  
“What is he doing?” It was the thought on all their minds. Eren and Jean had been known to butt head and disobey each other, but not when their actions would put others at risk. No, Eren had a reason for trying to get closer.  
“I don’t know, but she’s got her aim on us, we need to stay down, still, and quiet,” she stated and there was a silent agreement between the four, Jean shifting and helping him and Marco crouch down further, keeping their packs from the sight in the window. “She didn’t get you, did she, Marco?”  
“Almost, but no, she didn’t get me,” he breathed, heart racing but starting to slow. Jean held his hand and gripped tightly, scared to lose his boyfriend once again in the early stages of survival this time around.  
“Nobody peek up or anything. Stay down. If Eren’s on a suicide mission, that’s his business, but I will not have anyone draw her attention to us further. Got it?” Jean’s voice was rough and they could read the look in his eyes. He was desperate to protect them. All of them. He was their leader this time around and he would not have their blood on his hands. He was going to keep them safe no matter what. Eren was not his concern when the boy went off on his own or threatened the group’s safety, but the others were his responsibility and his alone, and he would not fail them.  
She turned after several minutes void of motion. “Far, let’s get the bike fixed and get the hell out of here.” He grunted in agreement and raided around in the part boxes. He searched quickly, trained from years in the Underground City back when titans still ravaged the world. His hands threw open boxes and his eyes scanned quickly before he began to grow panicked.  
“Son of a bitch!” He swore and kicked a box across the floor and out into the street, making the group hold their breath.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“They don’t have what we need!”  
“Calm down, Far-”  
“No, Isabel! We don’t have a bike anymore! The motor has two miles left on it, max, before it goes to shit and gives out on us!” He swore and punched a wall. They had a six hundred miles left to Westport, and now they had no bike. They had six hundred miles of walking in lands filled with infected while bandits were chasing them. “We’re fucked, Izzy.” He moved and sat down on the curb in front of the shop and ran his fingers through his hair. She followed him and sat down next to them. “I’m sorry, Isabel. I’m just pissed off. If anywhere would have had what we needed, it would have been this place. We could always scavenge off of other broken bikes, but we’d have to either come back for the bike or push it along with us, both are foolish.” She nodded and handed him the gun before wrapping her arms around him and hugging him.  
She pulled back and kissed him lovingly on the lips. “Hey,” she spoke sweetly, “at least neither of us are hurt. We can grab our bags and reload at that gas station-”  
“The one you shot up,” he teased and she went silent before getting up, taking the gun from him and walking off. “Izzy, Izzy, wait!” He laughed as he stood up and followed her. “I’m joking, baby. I think,” he said as he caught up to her, grabbed her wrist, and spun her around, holding her in his arms, “that that’s a wonderful plan. She had a pout on her lips as she stared up at him, waiting for his apology with her arms crossed. “I’m sorry,” he conceded and she smiled, leaning up to peck him on the lips. “Y’know, the end of the world isn’t too bad if I get to spend it with you,” he purred and kissed her neck as she giggled, his lips against the black fabric choker she wore that covered her birthmark. They all had it. The wings of freedom were emblazoned on where any member of the survey corps had died. She hated it. She felt branded by a group that she was only there to destroy. It was a sick joke in her mind, so she covered it. She had liked the more punk style of the new fashion and had been wearing black and ripped up jeans with crop tops, chain bracelets, combat boots, and chokers ever since her mom had died and she found Farlan. They found each other early, middle school at PE to be precise and when her mom died, Farlan got his mother to take her in, and it was them against the world again.  
The sound of footsteps startled her and she whipped her arm around him and aimed down the street, focusing on a silhouette in the shadows of the town’s buildings at sunset. Farlan let go of her and pulled his throwing knives from his gear up his arm, a sheath that held them close at hand at all times. “Who’s there! Come out with your hands up if you like your brain inside your skull!” She held her eyes hard as a teenager stepped out from behind the veil of darkness, cooperating. She looked him over hard. He looked like a bandit; after all, he was dressed in combat boots that he had pulled off a dead body they’d passed, along with ripped cargo pants, a tight fitting black long sleeve shirt with a heavy camouflage jean jacket pulled over the top, but most incriminating was the bandana mask on the lower half of his face, covering up to his nose. “I want a name,” she barked and he complied as he watched her cock the gun.  
“Eren! Eren Yeager!” His voice cracked with fear and she didn’t flinch. She’d killed many in both lives. It wouldn’t phase her to take him out either.  
“Put your weapons on the ground, unload all of them, or I swear to god you won’t be breathing in a moment,” she snarled and he did so with shaky hands, pulling his backpack off and lying it on the ground before laying his pocket knife on the floor beside it and taking a step back. “That all you’re carrying,” she called and he nodded. “Go grab it, Far,” she demanded and he listened. Isabel was in charge this time around. She was equally as scary as Levi when survival instincts kicked in, meanwhile, he panicked. He slung the bag onto his shoulder and picked up the gun. “Why are you here,” she demanded and he swallowed. He knew where this was going.  
“I’m passing through. My group is checking for possible bases around here,” he admitted and she scoffed.  
“Only base is in Westport, I’ll ask again, why are you here?” Her green eyes were intense and he saw why Levi said that he had the same eyes back in the corps, now he just had a freaky mutation in them while a bite festered below them.  
“Honest to god! I’m telling the truth, Magnolia!” He bit the inside of his lip after saying that. He was riding on one hell of a bet. He didn’t even know if these were Levi’s friends, but he prayed to every deity that he was right and that she wouldn’t punch a hole through his head before he found out if he was right.  
“Who are you?” She completely dropped the question of his reason for being there and began to interrogate him. “Who the fuck sent you?”  
“No one!”  
“Then how the fuck do you know my maiden name? You’re not old enough to have been in any of my classes before I changed my name, so how do you know?” Farlan had stepped off to the side and was raiding his bag, finding his wallet and cellphone. The cellphone had no battery, but he kept it anyways. His wallet had a few thousand in it, having been preparing to go buy a used car after school on the day of the outbreak.  
“Levi told me,” he stated and she dropped the sights on the gun. A look of hope lit up in her eyes and Farlan stopped rummaging to look up at him. “He’s told me so much about you two.”  
“He’s in your group? Where are they?” Her voice was so excited and hopeful and it crushed him. He had as much of a clue as they did to where he was in this hell on earth.  
“They are hiding in that gas station down there, but he’s not with them. I haven’t found him this time around yet, and it sounds like you haven’t either.” Her face dropped and she holstered her gun. She had wanted so badly for Levi to poke his head up from that gas station and yell at her for shooting first and asking questions later, but she wouldn’t get that, not today.  
“They can come out,” she stated and walked up to him, offering a hand, “I’m Isabel and that’s Farlan,” she told him and he nodded, taking her hand and shaking it heartily as his heart raced. “Sorry for shooting at you, kid.”  
“I’m just glad to finally have met my boyfriend’s family,” he admitted before yelling at his group to come out of hiding. Mikasa yelled at him and Jean threw a brick, but he was shocked to turn back to a shell-shocked Isabel.  
“ _‘Boyfriend?’_ ” He nodded and a big grin broke out on her face before she jumped up and down. Farlan laughed and stood up, handing him his bag back. “Far! You owe me twenty bucks! I _told you_ Levi was gay!” He laughed as she mocked him and the two groups met up, exchanging names and greetings before looking for a new place to hole up for the evening and plan out their routes.


	6. Cold shoulders and Hot Heads

The snow bit into their fingers and turned their noses to faucets as they huddled around the fire they had burning in an old metal trash bin within the cover of a parking garage outside a shopping complex that was boarded up at the exits with red paint declaring “infected inside.” They had thought about scavenging the stores for warmer clothes and things they could use as weapons but were attacked by bandits, likely ones from the group that had attacked before, and, while they came out on top, Erwin took a serious hit. He was shot through the shoulder and it became infected causing a fever to corrupt his body and seize him up. They had to stop. It was negative five degrees Celsius, and they had to stop. They were in fall clothes and had to stop. It was snowing, and they had to stop. They were hungry, cold, poorly armed, and being followed, and they had to stop. Erwin had to stop, so they did, too.  
“Think the fever will pass soon,” she asked in a hushed voice, brown eyes watching the blonde girl clean the man’s wound as he lay there sweating, breathless, and delirious from fever. Her pale hands were pink from the cold and red with his blood as she put clean wrapping on it.  
“It would pass sooner if I had some antibacterial… anything. We’re using my scarf to bandage the wound, but he needs antibacterial wash and gauze, maybe even stitches,” she stated, frustration evident in the bite in her voice. She wasn’t sure what was ticking her off, but Ymir knew. She felt like she could do better, but was unable to. Christa was being limited and her friend was suffering for it. “I wish we could at least rinse it with water.” Moblit scolded her from the pillar he was leaning against as a guard, assault rifle in hand. It was far too cold to rinse the wound with water unless they could keep the area warm, and they couldn’t. “I still wish it was an option,” she muttered and Ymir stared at the girl hard while she nursed their former commander. Her hand worked hard at his wound to try to help curb the bleeding and they looked up at the blonde when he added his two cents.  
“Besides, you would need antibiotics, not antibacterials. The infection is already set, antibacterials prevent, antibiotics cure,” he stated before rambling about how hot water or a hot blade could stop the bleeding and clean the wound to cut the time of his illness’ duration. Ymir turned the bat over and over in her hands before getting up with a groan of protest as her muscles rejected the notion of movement. She made her way over to Moblit and passed him, the man grabbing her arm as she reached down to grab Christa’s bag that had only a water bottle and a food ration inside. “What do you think you’re doing?” She pulled the bag over her shoulder and yanked her arm free to face him. Her brown eyes narrowed and made direct, unwavering contact with his.  
“Antibiotics and clean water, right?” Her words sounded more like a hostile promise than a question of confirmation. “Gauze and wrap, as well, or am I wrong?” She turned to leave and he barked at her, making her turn around.  
“You’re not going alone,” he yelled and she scoffed. He stared her down as she fixed her jacket and looked at Christa kneeling by Erwin’s side.  
“And you’re not leaving them alone, so, yes, I am going alone.” He huffed but said nothing. Her mind was made up, and he had enough years of dealing with Hanji and her stubbornness to recognize that the girl had made her mind up. “If I’m not back by sunrise, assume I’m dead, ‘kay Christa?” The small girl nodded and looked back to her patient, holding his hand with her small one as he was wracked by chills, before looking back at the girl.  
“You better be back,” she demanded and Ymir smiled, empowered by the statement. If Christa needed her, nothing would stop her.  
“I will be.”


	7. Sleep For Now

“I’m going out,” Levi stated after they finished their morning ration, getting up and pulling a crossbow and knife from the weapons hung on the wall. Petra and Mike stayed quiet as Hanji stood up and walked over to him, Petra ushering Mike with her to the kitchen to clean their dishes, what little of it they had between the four of them. He turned and faced Hanji who stood there in jeans, an oversized flannel, boots, and a nylon rope tied up her lower arm as a bracelet. She had a worried look on her face as she addressed him.  
“Whatcha need out there?” She raised a hand to push her glasses into place before returning the hand to where her arms were loosely crossed across her boobs. He sighed and sat on a stool of the nearby workbench where maps were laid out with the four of theirs’ handwriting. He set the crossbow across his lap and gestured for them to speak. They were worried and he knew it. “You haven’t slept.” She didn’t try to coat anything at all. “I know, I haven’t either, but I also know not to go outside until I have. You are exhausted. Rest, and send Mike in your stead; after all, I can man the post. Hell, I grew up in the hicks! I handle a gun better than all of yall,” she pushed, her voice raising slightly and her accent showing through. Academic excellence often hid her accent behind a veil due to her being well spoken and well written, but when she grew stressed, tired, or emotional it showed. She was all of these at the moment. “Fuck,” she swore and walked up to him before running a hand through his shaggy hair, “please, just rest. If you sleep for even an hour, it’d be alright, but you haven’t slept since the outbreak. You have rested and taken power naps but not slept. Actually slept.” Her eyes were pleading and he saw Petra and Mike listening from the kitchen doorway. “You wouldn’t let one of us go alone, so don’t think that we will. Take a rest, and I’ll take you. Someone has to be there if something happens.”  
He sighed and set the crossbow on the workbench and got up, nodding when she asked if he was going to do what she asked. She smiled and followed after him. His steps were uneven but firm in a way that spoke of exhaustion but not over exhaustion. Levi hadn’t done much in the way of physical exertion in the last week now that they had a fully stocked storage area of food and necessities thanks to their raids on the college and gas station. The beds were soft for old military cots, though they creaked horribly, and it provided good rest for them all, even for someone like Levi who would have preferred a couch to sleep on over a bed. He pulled his boots off and gave a soft, breathy laugh as he sat on the edge of the bed, invested in his task. “Boots are still annoying, even without the maneuver gear,” he joked and she gave a soft snort, reaching for her flannel and triangle scarf that sat on the foot of her bed. It was funny, really. It was sad as well as he was right. Life wasn’t any less stressful or difficult, but it was just different. They just had less to fear, not to worry about. “I wish my boots were brown, then you wouldn’t be able to tell when I stepped in the feces of some animal roaming around.”  
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she laughed before turning to him. “Mind if I take a nap with you?” He looked up as she pulled her jacket off and slipped into her large flannel and tied the scarf around her neck like a bandana and he smiled. “What?”  
“Hey there, cowgirl,” he teased and she laughed loudly, happily, before making finger guns at him with a lopsided grin. “How’re the hicks this time of the year, Miss LittleBigTown.” She laughed and cleared her throat.  
“Dontcha know there ain't nothing better than them hicks? Sumthin bout them boondocks ‘s so naice. Catfish, beer, and mass on Sundays,” she drawled with a snort of laughter. Levi smiled and leaned back into the wall and watched her laugh at her own antics, a sense of love sitting heavy in his chest. It was one of his favorite things, watching her act like herself, especially when she got a little goofy. “Say, ain't I seen ya at Ol Jim’s? Standin with a beer in ya left, a girl on ya right an' ya leanin up on the jukebox like some devilish casanova cowboy?” She snorted hard and giggled, clutching at her sides. “Holy shit, I’m dying!” She flopped onto his cot, lying across his legs and laughing her obnoxious laugh with snorts cutting in on the frequent. “I used to actually fucking talk like that!”  
“Hey,” he called and she looked up at him with a laugh and a grin that split her face wide and shone brighter than the sun. Hanji’s smile was one of the brightest things he’d ever seen, but his Bright Eyes still had her beat. Nothing could outshine his green gaze or sound sweeter than his laugh. She was close, but not the same. He was the only woman he had ever loved in his life, but Eren was the love of his life. She couldn’t compete with that without gratuitous amounts of booze. “I thought we were heading to bed?” She giggled and rolled over to look at him. He reached down and ran a hand through her hair, knuckles reading ‘Eren’ in a fancy, gothic font being draped in her brown locks.  
“Yeah, we are,” she replied sweetly before sitting up and laying down with him as he pushed himself from the wall and laid down, putting an arm around her ribs as they curled up close. “Say, Levi, think we’ll find them? I mean… I worry sometimes. I watched you all die last time, so what if I don’t even get to see it this time? I lived in the hicks, I didn't know anyone for a while there, then I found you at the RENT auditions and then Petra when I got my life straight and killed it in college classes to rise to be a prodigy that they’d never seen before. I want to find them, was saving money to travel the states to look for them, but money is no good and it’s not safe to travel,” she looked down and tucked her chin to her chest before sighing. “I was just thinking. Do you ever think about that?”  
He was quiet for a while, turned his head when he heard Petra and Mike try to eavesdrop from the doorway. Hanji often worried about the things that he tried to ignore, but he never really could. He missed them, Eren and Erwin, hell, even the 104th training corps. His skin was a record of every time a memory from the past burned itself into his subconscious for days on end. “I got to know my mom really well this time around, and she told me something that I think is true at this point. ‘If it’s meant to be, then it will happen.’ Hanji, we’ll find them if they’re out there, because if we four found each other, then I think it’s meant to be. The last life we only had you and me, in fucking Arabia of all places, but this time, we have all of the continent if we have gas. Third time’s a charm, right?” She looked up and gave a sad smile and nodded, hugging him tight and letting herself give up the thoughts that plagued her. She whispered a word of thanks and he hummed a reply, hugging her close in comfort as he felt his exhaustion tug on him. It didn’t take long, not once Mike and Petra left them alone, to fall asleep for the first time in three weeks.


	8. A Deal Struck

“Shit,” he swore as his ears rang in the quiet of the old building. He felt a cold hand on his face that pushed him away and spoke strongly of Jean.  
“Trying to get us killed, bastard?” The teen growled at Eren as he moved forwards. There had been a commotion outside the apartment they’d been holed up in before they had gotten up, and they could still hear it in the streets as they weaved around in an old department store that they’d entered from the alley door to avoid the street as they made their way towards the forest.  
“How have you five survived this long? If you don’t shut up, I am going to shoot you guys to save my own ass,” Isabel growled and the bickering that was on the tip of their tongues went cold, dropped dead on its face. She snuck past and cocked her gun as she peeked her head around the counter to look at the street, catching a person making a swinging motion. The figure was shorter than an adult, a teenager likely. They had brown hair and blood splattered all over their face as they swung a bat up and down onto a body lying in the street.  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” The girl, from the sound of the voice, yelled into the street. “Do you idiots get off on stalking my group? For fuck’s sake! We’re barely armed, you fuckers!” Isabel looked back as Eren poked his head up and listened closely, suddenly dead quiet and attentive. The voice sounded familiar, and not in the best way, but word of a group with that voice could either be a blessing or a curse. A gunshot sounded out and the girl ducked, grabbing a gun off a body before unloading the capacity into her attackers, silencing her opposition. “Fucking finally,” they growled as the group moved closer to the girl that was carrying a bat loaded with spikes and barbed wire. She set to diligently searching bodies muttering one thing under her breath in repetition: antibiotics. “C’mon, c’mon.” She stood and kicked the body of a bandit that she’d smashed the head of in. “You’re the reason I need the shit! Have the decency to give me what I need in death!”  
“Ymir?” Isabel turned and pointed her gun at Eren’s head, eyes daring him to repeat himself as the group sat on edge. The girl in the street jolted up and looked around, yelling out for the owner of the voice to show themself as she grabbed a new gun off a corpse. Her hands shook around the gun but Isabel’s did not. Her eyes were hard as diamonds as she stared him down. Eren looked to Marco, begging the boy silently to help him.  
“Ymir!” Isabel swore when Marco jumped up to yell and a shot went off from the panic as Ymir caught the motion. She dropped the gun like it was poison and swore when she recognized him. The group rose and Isabel pointed her gun to the ground as Farlan put a hand around her waist.  
“And you idiots were in Levi’s squad? Did anything he ever teach you go in one ear and out the other?” She joined them begrudgingly as they met the girl on the street and talked as friends, bloody pasts forgotten as she shared that she was searching for medicine for Erwin.  
“Who are they?” Ymir asked when the couple walked up, Isabel’s trigger finger itching to teach all these morons a lesson.  
“Bitch, who are you,” she growled back in response before Farlan put himself between the two, able to tell that they would not be making friends or even making nice with one another. He gave placating gesture before informing that they were members of Jean’s little survival group. The girl rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the group, detailing the situation they were in.  
“He needs antibiotics, fast. When I left, he was unresponsive… He doesn’t have long. I have everything else but I get the feeling that everyone who was bit chugged antibiotics, hoping it’ll save them,” she started, telling them of all the empty bottles she’d found of it, but none with any actual pills in it before explaining that she was hoping the medical wing of the college may have what she needed. “I figured it’s worth a shot. I got attacked by those bandits, the ones that hurt Erwin and have been following us. I was supposed to be back before sunrise, told them to assume me dead by then. I need something good if I’m going back after making them believe I’m dead due to those fuckers delaying me.”  
“So, what now?” Jean spoke up and called the titan shifter into question. She’d deceived them all before, so was there an angle for her to work this time?  
“Now, I go to the college and search. I’d appreciate the help, but I can do without it. So, am I going alone or am I with friends?”  
“Ymir,” Mikasa spoke up and advanced on the girl. “You and us, we are not friends. You betrayed humanity! I’ll help you, but you are not my friend, clear? I’m doing this for the Commander.”  
“I got it, anyone else?” She was able to accept that. Mikasa had every reason to hate her, but she had absolutely no reason to not help her save their commander, the man who led them for their shared cause until the day he died. She hoped for another to step up and offer their help, but what she got was Jean stepping forwards and grabbing Mikasa by the arm.  
“We’re not going with her,” he growled and the pair locked eyes hard and it took everything in him to not give in to Mikasa’s intense gaze. She pulled her arm from his grip and stared him down, puffing out her chest and standing tall, barely shorter than him in their stances. “That’s final.”  
“Fine,” she bit back and looked to Eren. The boy’s eyes widened under her gaze and he knew what she was thinking. He may have been the impulsive one in their old lives, and even some still now, but she was braver this time around. She wasn’t impulsive, no, she just wasn’t afraid to risk it all, and that attitude made her look impulsive. “Then, you can all go to the military camp, and Ymir and I shall go take care of the Commander.”  
“Mikasa! You are a member of this group and as long as I am in charge-”  
“Jean, do us all a favor and shut up. This is the apocalypse, there are no rules, not even when you say you’re in charge. You may be our leader, but we don’t have to do as you say, and I am going to go help the Commander if I can,” her eyes were hard and she pushed past him and took her gun out and checked the cartridge. A full round. She nodded and snapped it shut before turning to Ymir, “lead the way.”  
“Mikasa,” Eren called and she paused to face him. He looked lost as he fought himself on whether or not to follow her. He and Jean were struggling to keep the group together as it was, and their little fight had just shattered the fragile glue that held it together. “Are you sure about this?”  
“I owe him. I can handle this, so, I’m going to do what I can for him.” Her eyes were determined and he stared into them, searching and lost. He breathed an agreement under his breath and looked down.  
“Okay.” He turned to Jean and nodded. “I’m going to go with her. Keep Armin safe for us, alright?” The two toned teen nodded and watched as Eren walked up to Ymir and told her that they would combine the groups. “Safety in numbers, right?”  
“I suppose. Christa needs to be protected, she can’t handle a weapon and she wouldn’t be able to take a life,” she admitted and gave a sound of resolution. She walked up to Jean and held out her hand. “Eren and Mikasa will come with me to help us, and you will go scout out those bases. Name a place and we’ll meet up there as soon as possible for our groups to combine. Moblit was working as a doctor, and I reckon you guys will need that in your group and I need someone to protect Christa. I think that’s a fair trade, don’t you?” He hesitated and stared at her hand like it was a trick. He turned and looked at Marco and remembered how close they’d come to having Marco break his leg. They needed a base _and_ a doctor.  
He gripped her hand firmly and held it there even as she tried to pull away. “We meet at Saint Arle’s Church on West Road tomorrow at sundown. Think you can manage that?”  
“If we got a car, it’s a long walk to Jameson, and Erwin is sick as a dog,” she stated and Farlan lit up.  
“Find me a car with a battery and engine and I can fix it up by sundown. My motorcycle has a full tank of gas you can use,” he offered and they nodded, Jean handing Armin a rifle and turning to Farlan.  
“You two get them a car, and you three get Erwin on his feet and get Moblit to us. Ymir, you better make keeping them alive your top priority or I will hunt you down as payment for their lives, got that?” He snarled into her face and she nodded. She understood, he didn’t want to send them with her, but he would if it benefited the group, but she best bring them back alive or she would be killed as well. He was lending them to her and they needed to come back or else. He would not lose them. Not this time.  
“Don’t worry, pretty boy, I’ll get your people back and you’ll keep Christa safe. We’ll both get what we want.”


	9. The Military Camp

The military base looked unassuming from a distance, but that wall could be hiding an army behind it, keeping them hidden away. It had a treestand situated on the west wall, but whether or not someone was up there, they couldn’t tell. “Hey, look right there,” Marco whispered as he pointed to the gate of the wall. “There’s a fresh padlock there. No rust with how shiny it is.”  
“There’s someone in the treestand,” Isabel stated and Jean looked up at it, squinting hard as he tried to see what she must have seen to know that. He stared and saw nothing. He stared and saw no motion, not the glint of light off a weapon. He didn’t even see a sign that someone was up there.  
“I’m not seeing them,” he admitted and she sighed, muttering about his inability to recognize the obvious. She crouched down next to him and shifted his gaze to the branches in front of the post. She pointed out that they were shaved to look natural but give sight. “They’ve made it hard to see in, but easy to see out. Damn, we aren’t the first ones here.”  
Armin and Marco shuffled and moved in closer, staying low and quiet as they made their way closer. There was something painted on the dark doors in black, something they couldn't discern from the distance. “Where are they going?” Isabel whispered harshly and Jean whipped around to look at the two inching closer to the wall, sticking to the trees. Marco and Armin paused before turning back to them and jumping up, the quick shift of a gun in the treestand visible.  
“Marco! Armin!” Jean yelled and he jumped up as well, running forwards and grabbing them and tugging them back into the bushes, the three panting. “What the ever loving fuck made you do that? Do you want to die?” He chastised and stared intently at Marco as Armin shook from beside him. Jeans eyes were wet with tears that wanted to fall from the fear that had swept over him as Marco had made himself known to the tree stand's occupant. Farlan and Isabel were watching from their place where Jean had bolted from. They kept their breathing even as they watched intently as Marco and Jean had a moment of fear for each other, Armin inching closer to the clearing. Isabel swore when she realized that Jean was too busy calming himself and Marco to notice Armin’s moves.  
“Should I,” she whispered and he shook his head. He had spent the night up with Jean until they fell asleep, even though they were on watch. He had asked about everything that had happened after they had fallen to the titans, desperate to know it all, and if there was one thing that he took away from Jean’s stories, it’s that Armin was deadly intelligent. The boy wasn’t stupid or rash. They watched, Farlan’s hand on Isabel’s back as they crouched by the trees, as Armin, still carrying his rifle from their earlier excursion to get a car started, stood up and stared up at the treestand. He stood tall and stared, locking eyes with the sniper.  
“Armin Arlert of the 104th Training Corps,” he spoke up, declaring his status to the sniper and the entire group, Jean and Marco now privy to what Armin was doing, held a collective breath as he stood tall in the face of the barrel of a sniper rifle pointed down at him. The gun did not shake and it was centered on his head and he took a deep breath to calm himself. He knelt down and the rifle of the sniper cocked but did not fire as Armin set his rifle on the floor. He pulled his shirt up and revealed the wings of freedom burned into his chest in vibrant blue and white. The world stood still and Armin began to feel himself shake. Was he done for? Silence hung over them as Armin covered back up after a cold gust of wind blew by. Jean squeezed Marco’s hand tightly and Isabel raised her gun to aim at the sniper’s silhouette.  
“Who is with you?”


	10. Enter CSA pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: Hey guys! Eagle here, and I wanted to let you guys know that I will be trying to update this story weekly, but I will update daily if I find a writing streak like I have in these past few days.

The halls were oddly clean and oddly empty. It was eerie on a hundred different levels, yet Ymir hadn’t hesitated for even a moment. She had simply pulled the barbed wire tighter over her bat and walked in, fearless as she went on her mission. Eren stared in shock at the crosses spray-painted on the doors of rooms with a sharpie writing around it. In the upper left corner of the cross, it had a list of supplies, the upper right a number, the lower left a number between one and ten, and the lower right a check or an X. It was a code and that fact sent Eren’s nerves on high. Someone had been here, staked the place out and left codes on the doors. The most terrifying part was that the top of the cross read HZ or LA. Initials or a code, and they had no idea what they meant. “HZ,” he called and Ymir replied with the same, stating that there were acids in the room she was looking at, but an X and the number fifty-six. “Think the upper number means how many dead are in there?”  
Mikasa looked at the one on a door that read _‘Medical Theory H6’_ and read it over. _‘Office supplies, rulers, candle supply. 29. 8. Check.’_ She paused and looked in the window, watching the dead shuffle around and approach the door as she stood there, the group sensing her presence. “Clearly the first part is what is valuable in the rooms. The only question is that this HZ and LA, how-”  
“How the fuck did they know what was in the rooms,” Ymir questioned, finishing Mikasa’s sentiment. Only a few rooms were open, and those had a circle surrounding the cross code, detailing what rooms had been cleared out by this HZ and LA. She pressed her hand to a door and read the notes. The supplies had medicine among them, and antibiotics in specific listed. “Uh, what do you think the second number means?” She stared hard at the _‘1’_ sitting pretty ominously in the bottom corner. Rooms with low numbers had an X marked on them generally, yet this one had a check and a number count much larger than the rest. _‘Medical supplies, antibiotics, wrapping, equipment. 65. 1. Check.’_  
The dead pushed up against the door and after a minute as the group tried to figure it out, they stared in horror as the door gave a screeching, dying groan from its hinges before the door gave away, the hinges breaking.  
The door swung wide open.  
It was a flood of the undead in a matter of seconds.


	11. May Friends Unite

“I’m with a group,” he replied honestly and watched as the barrel shifted to scan the area, landing on Isabel and holding her in his sights. They held barrels for a minute before Isabel felt Farlan rest his hand over hers. There was no need to fight. The sniper was a lookout, not a killer. If he was, then Armin and Marco would have been dead already.  
“How many of you, come into the clearing,” he ordered and they obeyed, Isabel flicking the safety of her gun on and off in irritation. She shouldn’t be here. Farlan shouldn’t be here. They shouldn’t be the ones at gunpoint because of these stupid teenagers. Jean and Marco held hands tightly as they held their breath next to Armin. Five. There were five of them. “How many of you have the wings?”  
“All of us,” Farlan announced. He wrapped an arm around Isabel’s side and held her close, turning his wrist in his sleeve, wiggling a knife down to his hand and turning it into a throwing position should the need arise since Isabel had put her gun towards the ground. The metal was cold on his skin but he ignored its bite in favor of letting his heart rest as he held his girlfriend close, her presence making him feel safe, even if he was the one protecting her. “Me and my sister served under the, fuck what number was it,” he swore and wracked his brain. They had never paid much attention to what number of commander Erwin had been, but even worse, they didn’t have a training regiment to identify with. “We served under Commander Smith. We’re Levi’s siblings. Isabel and Farlan… Ackerman?” Levi had told him a thousand times that he sucked at lying, but it ever hit him as strongly as when their lookout said it. The insult burned because he knew it was right.  
“You are horrible at lying, Farlan,” Armin scowled and took a step forwards and stared the lookout in the eye. They held gazes for a long moment before Armin grinned like a Cheshire cat and gave a scoffing huff.  
“How about you save your voice and quit scaring us. You never spoke this much before, Mike,” he called and the barrel lowered and disappeared into the outlook. A breathy chuckle came from the outlook before a set of keys were tossed over the gate. The man leaned out to look at them in the light and Jean broke into a fit of swearing and scolding at his former superior while Isabel and Armin relaxed. Farlan smiled and shifted his blade back up into its sheath and pulled his hand from his sleeve like nothing had ever happened, like he hadn’t been ready to chuck a blade at the man. Marco grabbed the keys and unlocked the padlock that hung around a chain for the door, keeping it in place. The chain fell away with a clatter and the boy stooped to pick it up before the gate smacked him in the face as a redheaded girl poked her head out at the groan.  
“Oh my! I thought you had moved! I’m so sorry,” she fretted as Jean ran over and coddled his boyfriend. The teen was a mess. He was surrounded by suicidal idiots and he couldn’t wait to get Moblit among them because of it. The girl knelt and offered to help the freckled boy up, pulling him up with ease before ushering them inside and pulling the gate shut before tossing a ladder and climbing a ladder embedded in the wall to go lock the gate again.  
“That looks fucking unsafe,” Isabel pointed out and the girl nodded as she pulled the ladder back over the wall and rested it at an angle before climbing back down inside. She dusted off her pants and pushed her long hair back. The few weeks they had been cooped up left them all looking shaggy in the hair department, not that Mike looked any different from his usual. She pulled a hair tie from her wrist and pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail. “You guys should fix that.”  
“That’s what the others took the truck out for. That, and Hanji is determined to get the electricity up and running again,” she replied as she headed to put the ladder in its place, hefting it up and moving it to the area by the ladder from the post where Mike was climbing down, looking horribly too big for the ladder let alone the lookout, but mostly, he just looked exhausted.  
He walked over to those he once called cadets and grinned before wrapping them in a massive hug, holding them close. “I’m glad you’re all safe.” The confusion of the hug quickly wore off and the three found themselves hugging the friendly giant back, glad to have finally found an adult from their past who seems to have shown survival tactics in his scaring them at the gate while staying hidden, even though he thought he recognized them. He had waited for evidence of their identities, knowing that he couldn’t be too careful. He released them and smiled when he caught Armin looking around already. They had a base, they were welcome there, and the boy was surveying their new home after only a second. Jean and Marco were doing similarly with their hand interlocked, the weight of being the leader off of the boy’s shoulders now that they had Mike and Petra, squad leaders from their past lives and natural born leaders.  
“Say, what're your names?” Isabel demanded, and she committed their names to memory when she was given them. Mike and Petra. Two more people added to their little survival group. It was a good thing. The respect and affection that the kids had shown towards the older male left a good impression on her as it meant that he could be trusted. “Say, mind If I take a look at the inventory?”  
“Whatcha want to see?” Petra was a sweet little thing. It was a refreshing attitude and it put the girl’s nerves at rest as Farlan moved to watch the group look around the main area. Armin was looking over a large pile of maps and notes scattered over a workbench while Marco and Jean hung around the firepit that had died out in the morning. Isabel looked carefully at the woman and thought before speaking her mind.  
“I’d like to see your arsenal and medical supply.” The girl made a surprised sound before nodding, leading the way over to the building next to the barracks and led the girl in where they kept all the supplies, neat and organized courtesy of all her extra time in the camp. She was no good at cooking or hunting and she didn’t know her way around a weapon nor did she serve much use in the tasks Hanji had lined up for herself. “This is impressive,” she stated and picked up a bow that was hung on the wall. “Does anyone know how to use this?”  
“No, none of us, at least. We just grabbed what we could and what was left,” Petra admitted and they heard the sound of shouting outside the gate. “Oh! Mike, I thought you were on guard!”  
“My bad,” he called back as the pair ran up and keys were tossed, a familiar voice calling for them to let them in. It didn’t take them long to get their little routine done and for a man in the back of the truck’s flatbed calling for Petra to help him unload the supplies as he strapped his crossbow over his shoulder securely.  
“Hanji, get back here and help me and Petra unload this shit; half of it is yours,” he barked, jumping down from the flatbed and hefting a box of ropes up into his arms. His goosebumps from the frigid air were hidden by the tattoos curling up his arms as he turned towards the supply room and walked around the truck. “The shit from the hangar is to go to the barrack, I need to rig up-” He never finished his sentence as he looked straight ahead, body frozen in place. He sucked in a sharp breath and once it was in, he held it there and didn’t let it go as he stared in disbelief. He swallowed thickly as he watched shock and tears fill up green eyes and he felt the muscles in his arms give out before he rushed forwards.  
The box hit the ground and it was a first for many of those in the camp.  
It was the first time they saw Levi cry.


	12. A Family Reunited

He felt his world give away at that first contact when his hands grabbed onto warm, shaking flesh and not just some hallucination of his mind. She was there. She was clinging to him and crying just as hard as he was, grabbing at him like she would never see him again. He couldn’t have stopped the broken whispers or tears even if he wanted to. Her grip was crushing on his waist, and he was sure that his was equally so on her shoulders, but he couldn’t find himself to care and neither could she. “Isa,” he whispered, words shaking and broken as he heard her hiccough and nod her head against his chest as she gripped at him and lost all strength in her legs. “Fu-uck, Isabel,” he cried softly and hugged her close, her red hair tickling his nose and eyelids as he buried his face in her soft locks and let the sobs wrack his chest freely. Fat tears rolled down his cheeks as he heard her cry out his name and whisper ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ to him and cry. Her words hurt, but he couldn’t bring himself to mind. ‘We should have listened’ and ‘we were wrong’ were cried out but he simply shushed her and pulled her closer, his own legs giving out as they ended up a huddled, sobbing mess on the ground. “Izzy, oh, Izzy,” he whispered, the words falling from his lips like a broken prayer.  
“Levi-bro,” she cried and his heart shattered even with the soft smile gracing his lips at the joy of having her back, safe and alive and whole. They felt a set of arms wrap around them and he looked up, catching steel eyes filled with tears as Farlan knelt down and hugged them tightly. Their shared warmth kept away the cold wind of the winter, and nothing existed outside of them and their reunion.  
Years of pain.  
Years of mourning.  
Years of insomnia.  
Years of longing.  
Years of tears.  
Years of nightmares.  
Years of loss.  
Those years slipped away from him, gone for good, irrelevant in his mind as he cried and held them close. It was indescribable, the way that the weight of his past had lifted so freely, so easily. For the first time more than a lifetime, he felt like he could breathe. There was nothing bearing down on him from his own mind, and it was all just so unfamiliar to him. He could breathe, he felt safe and happy, and he wasn’t alone with his thoughts. He wasn’t alone with his demons and haunting images that plagued his mind. “Far, Izzy,” he sobbed out brokenly, and he felt Isabel’s hand come up to clutch at his undercut, hand shaking as she cried. She pulled back and smiled tearfully at him and he felt a smile of his own on his lips, eyes full of tears, joy, and disbelief. “I’m not losing you guys again,” he swore and she gave a laugh of happiness and wiped tears from his face as he shut his eyes and cried quietly in her hands. He had forgotten what it felt like. Her hands were so gentle and soft as she thumbed his tears away and Farlan’s arms were so strong and firm around them. Her voice was music to the ears and Farlan’s face was a comfort in ways it had never been before. He hugged them tight and looked up when he heard Hanji clear her throat.  
Her eyes were soft and gentle, touched by the reunion. She had a soft smile on her lips as she spoke, “do you need the hangar boxes with the bars in it in your room?” He shook his head and wiped tears away, hugging them tight once more before getting up and helping Isabel up while Farlan stood. He held her hand as he turned to Hanji.  
“No, those can go with the food,” he laughed and she smiled, nodding and heading towards the supply room with two boxes in her arms. “Petra,” he called weakly, voice rough from crying so hard. “Set the tools and bolts down next to the benches, Hanji’s going to rig up the bolt locks for the gate.”  
“Of course, Levi,” she replied and picked up a box labeled ‘Hanji’s shit’ before carrying it towards the benches near the fire pit, only to be intercepted by Jean, the boy insisting that he help, Armin and Marco joining in. “You guys wanna catch up in the barracks? I’ll come get ya’ll when dinner is ready if you want?”  
“Please, Hanji. That’d be nice.” She nodded with a sweet, almost motherly smile and watched them as the three of them headed into the barrack, warm due to a fireplace inside. The room was warm, welcome change from the cold, harsh air outside, even though the fire was low and calm. It was a sense of peace that settled around them, and Levi couldn’t count the years it had been since he last felt that way.


	13. Enter CSA pt. 2

They weren’t sure how they had ended up so royally fucked, but they’d managed to back themselves into a literal corner as the infected came at them in one massive, relentless, unending wave. Mikasa supposed they were lucky to even be alive at this point as she lashed out at a zombie grabbing at her with the broom she’d grabbed as they had ran down the hall and further into the building in their panic. They were standing in a partial circle with their backs positioned towards the gap between them and the corner in the wall, shoulder to shoulder as they each fought back, trying desperately to keep the threat at bay even as they grew quiet and the zombies grew more active in the darker hours of the day. Blood seeped dark red into Eren’s sleeve where he had been bitten by a zombie when he had grabbed and pushed one off of Ymir to keep it from getting to the girls. They hadn’t had the time for Ymir to panic about it. They only had the time to fight for their lives.  
Eren’s hands were raw and blistered under his grip on the axe handle and Ymir was winded, but they didn’t dare stop. Mikasa’s exhaustion had settled in, but she kept going, knocking zombies back and forcing the sharp end of the broken handle through a vulnerable eye socket. Why had they tagged along? Was the terror and adrenaline worth the debt they owed to Erwin? She didn’t know anymore, but she knew that it was too late to decide. She grunted as an infected pushed up against her, their foul reek getting stuck in her plugged nose as it made futile biting motions at her from where she held the broom flush against its neck to keep it back, stumbling back as more pushed at it from behind. Her footing came loose and she stumbled back a step, her back smacking into the wall as Eren turned and swung at the dead starting to crawl on top of her. “Ymir, bash a way through,” he yelled and the girl cried out in panic as she got grabbed before beating it back before killing it. Her skin was streaked with blood and her arms shook as she swung again at a new opponent. Her hair had fallen from her tie and was dangling messily in her face as she fought back with a titan’s ferocity.  
“And how do you suppose I pull that shit off, Jaeger,” she panted, energy draining fast and they were only halfway through the mass. She shoved a dead back and swiped a hand across her face to push her bangs from her face in the moment of reprieve that the zombie’s stumbling had allowed her before she resumed bashing skulls in or knocking the head from the shoulders with the force on the weak flesh and bones. “I don’t really see a way to manage to-”  
“Shove. Shove and shove and shove until you get some distance on them, then make a break for the end of the hall. Those doors lead out, and we can handle them if we have then spread out,” he explained and Mikasa nodded, showing her agreement with his plan as they huddled closer and put their backs together and moved as one mobile unit, shoving and killing their way through the group and into an area where they could run. The second they felt Ymir take off, they were running blindly after her, panting and bleeding and terrified.  
Fear and desperation were strong in their bones as they ran, running on little to nothing, but instinct guided them to flee for open ground. Mobility meant ability against a dumber opponent, and that was their only shot at survival at this point. They felt the ground hard under their feet as they ran, footsteps echoing loudly in the hall as they sprinted as hard as they ran and ran, getting more and more distance between them and the monsters following them. “If I had known we’d end up five feet deep in shit, then I would have sided with Jean, Mika,” he yelled and the girl nodded in agreement. She would have insisted that Ymir didn’t go at all. If they had known just how bad the risk was, how much it would lure you in and make you feel safe before screwing you over completely, then they would have searched the town all over before setting foot on the campus. Ymir would have likely agreed. “What now?”  
“We can run or fight,” Mikasa replied as she slammed the doors shut behind them, her skin iced against the metal of the doors. “I’m tired, but Erwin,” she breathed, short of breath and exhausted. She slid her weapon, more of a scrap than a weapon, into the handles and walked over to them. She could keep going, but it would be pushing her limits as the fear fueled adrenaline subsided. “Personally, I think we should wait until morning. We’re exhausted.”  
“And you’re bitten,” Ymir stated firmly. Eren shifted and grabbed at the bite through his sleeve. “Thanks for saving me, but,” she hesitated. Ymir had never been the enemy in Eren’s eyes. She hadn’t joined the titans, not truly. She was forced into the villainous role, and Eren couldn’t hate her for that. He just couldn’t find it in him to hate her for something she never wanted to do. “You’re going to turn,” she rolled her sleeves up and faced him. She didn’t want to face this, but she couldn’t afford to ignore it.  
“He won’t,” Mikasa replied, taking a step between the pair, her dark eyes staring into Ymir’s. “He’s immune.” She knew it sounded ridiculous, but the truth was the truth and if Ymir believed her, then it could save Eren from a sudden death at the business end of Ymir’s bat. Ymir raised an eyebrow and looked to Eren, watching as the boy clenched and unclenched his fists in thought.  
“Prove it.” He stared at her wide eyed and nervous. Ymir was an outsider. She hadn’t been there when he was bitten. She hadn’t been there as Jean held him in a room at gunpoint, daring him to turn in four days time. She was an outsider. She didn’t have first hand experience. She had only the words of two desperate people to believe. She had their words, but the wound looked fresh on his face, less than a day old, and it is easier to believe what you see than what you hear.  
His hands shook as he reached up and worried the knot of his bandana loose. It had been tied tight enough to dig deep lines of pink grooves into his skin where it laid flush against his nose and cheeks. He gave a soft swear as the pressure of the fabric left him for the first time since he had made it. The lines were an angry pink and red color set into deep grooves that made it a wonder that he could breath through his nose with it on. He rubbed gently at his nose to smooth out the indents before bringing the bandana down to rest around his neck loosely. Ymir walked up and stared hard at the bite, gripping him by the chin and turning his head to get a better look. “How old, because it looks like less than three hours, but we’ve been together for at least four, and I never saw you get bit on the face.” A wave of relief flooded their systems as she spoke, releasing his face and turning to Mikasa. She believed that it was old, and that meant she believed him to be immune.  
“Two and a half weeks, now,” she explained and Ymir swore, shocked at how old it was while looking so fresh and clean. She turned back and rubbed at it, Eren wincing at the contact. It may be immune and healed over, but it was still sensitive. He flinched back at the touch and pulled the bandana back up, uncomfortable with his bite being out in the open, visible and exposed. It was a feeling that put fear under his skin and pulled tight at the muscles that laid beneath as he stood, vulnerable and threatened in silence, an infected among those who feared the monster that his bites could create. No one had ever looked at him with as much terror as a titan as they did when they saw his bite. He was no longer a person in their eyes.  
He was a liability.  
A threat.  
A lost cause.  
A monster.  
The enemy.  
How was it that people had been more accepting of him as a literal monster, a titan that could turn on them at any moment, than as a regular person bitten by an infected? Perhaps it was that they feared what they did not know, and the outbreak was still fairly fresh, still foreign on their tongues. He was an anomaly with no explanation. He was immune, and they could only guess why.  
“We should go find the others. We can’t get to the room with this many still pushing and shoving at the-” A light shined brightly on them, illuminating the courtyard from the nearby road and the group squinted at it, knowing that Ymir _and_ Farlan and Isabel had been chased by bandits recently. They couldn’t rule out the possibility. The car that had stopped on the road, facing them with the brights on, was a red truck, and they gripped at their weapons tighter as the doors of the car opened. They had just gotten out of one fight, but they would keep fighting, not because they had to, but because they could.


	14. Make A Miracle

“He’s getting worse,” Moblit whispered dejectedly. He smoothed the blonde hair from a drenched forehead, hot with fever but iced from the cold where the sweat laid on his pale skin. Christa looked over from her place at the nearby pillar and gave a worried frown. Ymir had been gone for a full day. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t depressed at the thought of doing what the girl had told them to do before leaving. _‘If I’m not back by sunrise, assume I’m dead, ‘kay Christa?’_ They were at sundown and still no sign of the brown haired girl. No sign of her girlfriend. Her heart hurt, and she was fighting back tears, staying strong for Moblit as he tended to Erwin the best he could with no medication. Food rations were low and Moblit had gotten Erwin to drink half a bottle of water in the last few hours by forcing him to swallow even as he shook and sweat helplessly. Moblit needed her to stay grounded. He was barely holding it together himself as the hours dragged on excruciatingly slow.  
His hands shook slightly as he dragged a damp, warm cloth across Erwin’s forehead, but he didn’t let the fear show. If he was honest about how he felt… Christa would fall apart. Erwin had only a few hours. He needed antibiotics now, because he was losing the fight against the infection. Even without all his tech, he could tell that Erwin had gotten Septicemia, and that was dangerous. Septicemia was blood poisoning from bacterial infections, and it can kill. He showed all the signs: rapid and altered respiratory patterns, low blood pressure or heart rate, and even the altered mental state. The few times Erwin had woken up, he had told Moblit that his right arm hurt, but he couldn’t move it, and he kept grabbing at where it had been severed in his past life. Erwin had thought the arm wasn’t there because he was delirious. “I know she said to assume her dead, but we need her to return. I think he’s starting to get Cyanosis.”  
“What?” She turned and watched as the man sat back, resting his hand on Erwin’s right bicep, right across a birthmark that stemmed from where he had been severed. The doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair restlessly.  
“He’s starting to turn blue. Cyanosis is when the blood doesn’t have enough oxygen,” he recited from the dozens of books and textbooks he had read in his nine years of getting a phd as a medical professional. He could name a disease from the symptoms alone and he could identify poison ivy, aloe, and could turn a lavender plant into a oil mix that served as an antiseptic. Antiseptic. That’s it! “Christa!” The girl jumped to her feet at his sudden outburst. “Look out into the parking lot! Are there lavender bushes in the planters?”  
“Yeah, I see a few. Why?” He stood up and grabbed his bag and walked over to her, setting his hands on her shoulders. “Moblit, what’s wrong? You’re acting weird.” His sudden burst of energy after looking depressed for the last five hours had her on edge.  
“I need to go get some things. I can make a crude antiseptic. Erwin’s infection has taken a turn for the fatal, but I just remembered that with lavender, aloe vera, some glycerine, rubbing alcohol and heat I can make a crude, homemade emergency antiseptic, and that can buy him some time,” he explained as he pulled his gun from his holster and offered it to her. The girl took it hesitantly, unsure of the heavy weapon. “I need your knife. Take my gun and protect yourself and Erwin.” She looked up at him nervously before gripping the gun firmly and pulling her knife from her pocket. She held her hand out for the man and was shocked when he knelt down to her level after taking the knife. “You can do this. Ymir said to assume her dead, but she’ll be back. She told you that she would be back, so,” he smiled comfortingly, “she will be. Stay brave, I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll have an antiseptic with me. If you need help or he gets worse, shoot the road sign down there. It’ll echo, and I’ll hear it.”  
“Hurry, we need you and him both.”


	15. An Angel With A Noose

Blood slipped down his arm as he bandaged the wound with a hand sanitizer covered cloth that he had tore from an office in one of the apartments. The apartment had the glycerine he needed, but the medicine cabinet had been booby trapped, and he could hear the residents moaning and clawing at the door of another room in the building. When he had grabbed at the handle and pulled, it dropped a little handful of razors from the top of the shelf down onto him, only getting his arm as he jumped back. None of them cut deep, but he couldn’t be too careful. He had torn a strip of fabric from the drapes, washed it in the sink, squeezed it as dry as he could before using the travel size bottle of hand sanitizer he had found in the last room, and he grit through the pain and patched himself up to the best of his ability, hoping the hand sanitizer would prevent infection. He grabbed the glycerine and left the room after grabbing a mason jar from the counter. He had it all. He could make the antiseptic. He hadn’t heard the sound of Christa’s signal for help and ventured into the next apartment. If he could double up on some of the supplies, then he could make some spare for his own wounds.   
The door was a brown one, set into a tan building with long windows on either side of the door. He knocked a few times, attempting to draw the infected over towards the door if they were in there, and he was surprised when he found none. He heard groaning, but nothing close. The handle turned easily, an uncommon thing in the wasteland that the world was becoming. He should have known that he wouldn’t like what he would find behind the door.   
A girl, a beautiful young woman, was in the center of the living room, but the reality if it made him sick to his stomach. Her skin was rotted and her throat was ripped away under the force of the rope. He leaned back against the shut door behind him and covered his mouth, willing the bile to return from where it came as it stained his mouth. She had hung herself. Suicide in the face of an apocalypse. It was the sad truth, the sad reality, that they now lived. He steeled his mind and pushed himself from the door, skirting a circle around the poor soul that had taken the easy way out. A box sat on the dining table, a note folded to stand atop it. There was a red cross made with red duct tape on the sides of the box and he gravitated to it. The note was simple. It sickened but thrilled him. 

_‘To you who finds this. To you who is stronger than me. To you who didn’t take the easy way out._   
_‘My name is Jenny, and I couldn’t take it any longer. The world had been bad, but this was unbearable. I was a volunteer relief team member, and I had disaster packs stored in my house. When I made my decision, I gathered all valuables in my house and put them in this box._   
_‘Use it. Keep surviving like I wish I had the guts to do. I put nonperishables, water bottles, first aid kits, and a flare gun with flares inside it._   
_‘Good Luck, Jenny Longcross.’_

“An angel even in death. I hope you’re in a better place, Jenny. Thank you,” he stated and opened the box. She hadn’t lied and no one had gotten to it before him. It was everything he could have asked for. The box was big with handle holes, but it held a lot, and she knew what a disaster kit should look like. He grabbed a pad of paper from her counter and a pencil. He needed to log all of it, have a list of what all the box had in it. He pulled a chair from the table and sat down, turning the box on its side to make it easier to pull things out. As he pulled, he wrote.   
_12 bottles of water, unopened._  
Six cans of nonperishable food. Beans, corn, and wild rice soup.   
A battery radio.  
A flashlight.  
A 24 pack of batteries for each.  
An emergency whistle.   
A small box of garbage bags. 12 count.  
12 plastic ties.  
12 zip ties.  
Four dust masks.  
Six feet of plastic sheeting.  
Four rolls of duct tape.   
Wrench and pliers.  
A can opener and mess kit.   
A winter jacket.  
Four rain slickers.   
A pair of leather gloves.  
A medium fleece blanket.   
A compass.  
Two matchboxes. They were stored in a metal tin to keep the water out.   
A can of aerosol disinfectant.  
A small bottle of bleach.   
And four first aid kits. Four gloriously brand new Red Cross First Aid Kits. He was set. He could log all the first aid supplies after he tended to Erwin, but for now, he shoved everything back inside the box and looked over to the girl. He walked up and made a quick move from behind and stabbed through the back of the skull to put her to rest. She had helped him, so he would care for her even in death. He cut her down and moved her to the bed in the other room, laying her on it as one would lie a person in a coffin. “Thank you,” he whispered as he looked around the room, seeing photos and drawings all over the walls. She was an art and photography major, her room said it all. He found a picture of her and tucked it into his pocket. A memoir of a girl who had saved them by doing what she felt necessary. She didn’t have to put together a disaster kit, but she did, leaving it for the next person to come by. She had put him in her mind before death, and he was humbled by her generosity. She deserved a proper burial, but he didn't have the means or time to do so. A photo would do. That little picture was a reminder that she was as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside in her selfless actions.   
He made his way back out to the kitchen and sat back down for a minute in the little dining area between the apartment kitchen and living room. He had been on his feet for a while after not using them for several days while tending to Erwin. He was sore. He was tired. He sighed and leaned back, looking around the apartment. It was nice, even dark and… What the hell was that? Moblit stood up and stared hard at the massive tank across the room. It was large with vines and logs lying on layers of the tank, like rungs on a ladder... but different. He took a step forwards and jumped when he felt his ankle scrape against something hard.


	16. Always A Catch: This One Is Named Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: At the moment, I have made a sketch of my version, this story's version, of Eren Yaeger. I would love to share it with you guys! I would love for you guys to see a sketch of what I am envisioning. I just have one problem...  
> I don't know how to insert media into the story. I have seen it done in many other stories where they will insert a photo in the middle or begining of the chapter. I know this can be done! I am still new to AO3. Could one of you guys please let me know how it is done, or direct me to someone or an article that knows how? It would be much appreciated, and it would help enrich your experience with the story as I could give visual aids to parts of the story.

The beast was beautiful in every way that Moblit did not understand. He jumped right out of his skin when he felt the scales of the creature against his bare skin. His skin crawled and his anxiety spiked. He wasn’t a reptile person, let alone an iguana person. The big beast, surely an adult or so he hoped, was green and blue, a brilliant color, and it was rather docile. It lumbered by like nothing had happened and made its way to the front door before picking up a little, albeit thick, cord that laid on the ground with a leather contraption on the end. Moblit tucked his legs up on the chair and fussed with the note left to the side of the box.  
_‘I hope Nico isn’t much of a problem. He’s a people person and I’m sure he’ll be a little overbearing in my absence. If you are able to take him with you, please do. He’s a wonderful companion and people think twice about messing with someone with a giant lizard on a leash. He’s not very skittish and he’s very friendly. If you can’t take him with you, make sure he has some food, please. You can let him out if the neighbor’s Serval isn’t out. That cat has been eyeing him for a while and I fear what the cat would do to my baby should he get to him. Nico will make a great companion if you take him with you, and I will call it payment for the supply box should you make sure he has food and water or let him out safely.’_  
Of course there was a catch. There was always a catch to a miracle. Always. It sucked. Moblit could have dealt with anything, but an _iguana?_ He damn near had herpetophobia for how much he avoided the creatures. He couldn’t even look at the reptile isle of the pet store without getting jumpy. Jenny was his saint, but why on earth had she chosen an iguana for a pet? He could have handled a leopard gecko if he steeled and committed himself, but an iguana got to several feet long! They were the size of a small dog and twice if not three times as long with a tail capable of breaking bones when it whipped. “Mother of Maria, Sina, and Rose, please have mercy,” he prayed under his breath as the beast waddled back over to him, dragging the cord with its mouth as it walked, the weight not slowing him down. It stopped short of him and began climbing the couch to lie and watch this new human. _This_ was overbearing? No, this was plotting, scheming, deciding, fantasiz- He sighed as he reminded himself that this creature did not want to eat him, despite how large and terrifying it was.  
It was no monster.  
It was a loved and doted upon pet who had recently lost its owner and was trapped in an apartment with only a month’s supply of food sitting on the shelf under the terrarium. It wore a red _collar_ for Christ’s sake. It was looking at him, and -yes- his heart was running a thousand miles per hour as he watched the large beast, but it didn’t show anything other than interest and curiosity. It wasn’t hostile, scared, or even territorial; it simply laid there watching him, wondering what it was that this strange human was doing in his home. “Nico, huh?” The lizard turned and looked at him, blinking in a bored fashion. Moblit felt his hands shake as he set his feet on the floor, looking around for any more surprises. “O-ok, big guy,” he whispered and shakily stood before grabbing at the box on the table. “Y-you stay right t-there, and I’ll…. I’ll let you out like Jenny wants, b-but you have to stay there.” The box was heavy in his arms as he skirted, steps careful and distant from the reptile as he made his way to the door, he shifted the box to his hip and peered outside for the serval that Jenny had warned against. Nothing, not even when he stepped out onto the balcony and looked at the ground below. He sighed and turned back to Nico, startling and jumping aggressively with the fright as he turned and saw the five-foot long lizard waddling the last few steps up to him. He yelled in panic as he accidentally jerked hard enough to drop the box over the ledge of the apartment and crash on the concrete ground. He stared down in despair before bolting down the steps in a flurry of panic and adrenaline as he took the stairs by threes.  
_Three. Six. Nine. Twelve. Cement. One. Two. Three. Four. Five._  
One. Two. Click. Three. Four. Click. Five. Six -Click- Seven -Click- Eight -Click. Nine. Ten. Click. Eleven. Twelve. Cement. One. Scrape. Two. Scrape. Three. Scrape. Four. Scrape. Five.  
His breathing was labored and panicked as he tore open the lid and tugged the blanket out to get into the med kits. A can of soup had popped and exploded in the fall, painting everything in rice and chicken broth. Moblit thanked God that the medicine boxes were water tight as he pulled them out and broke them open, looking them over each carefully for broken bottles or anything damaged. He found one kit’s rubbing alcohol bottle to have broken and doused everything in it, but the rest were alright. His hands stung from the cold with the alcohol dampening his hands, but he kept pulling usable parts from the kit and putting them in the others. He sat back on his knees and sighed. He turned his head and saw Nico sitting next to him, leash in mouth, looking at him expectantly. “You did this shit, you know?” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and turned to look at the lizard. Nico was oddly pleasant. He was calm and friendly, a stark contrast to the current world. He gave a soft smile and reached for the leash with a shaky hand, trembling when he took the rope, relief flooding his senses when the lizard dropped it and made no move to attack. “You’re not half bad,” he admitted and shakily reached for the leather at the end and organized it, revealing a leather harness. He held it open just above his knees and jumped when Nico crawled into his lap and began to walk into his harness. Jenny had trained him well, but it was nothing but freaky to the doctor. He jerked away the second he got the chance and grabbed the box of supplies. He pulled the remaining, usable materials and crammed them one by one into his backpack. He had to get back. He had to.  
Erwin needed him.  
Christa needed him.  
Ymir needed him.  
He was needed, and he moved supplies were from the wet box to the backpack, drying items with the dry bits of the blanket, zipping the bag up as soon as he could and getting to his feet, Nico waddling after him as he went into one of his previously opened first floor buildings. He stopped at the scraping noise of the leash on the cement and hooked the little clasp around a belt loop and made his way inside. He had a little companion tugging at his belt as he gathered up some small blankets and pillows before heading back to the roads. He would return with Nico and the medicine that Erwin needed to buy Ymir as much time as she needed.


	17. Imminence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: Hope ya'll are ready for some shit to go down, because after this chapter, I'm going to dive in head first with heavier topics! Warnings for each chapter will be up here in the Note!

It was surreal, lying on his cot with Isabel and Farlan next to him. It’d been years, _lifetimes_. The pain had been real, crippling, all consuming for _so many_ sleepless nights. It was real. It was as real as all the pain and despair he had felt everyday that he was without them. They were here. _Alive._ They were alive and well, breathing and laughing, crying and talking. They were there, with him, and he couldn’t believe that this wasn’t some awful nightmare that when he woke up, he’d be alone, hurting worse than before because he had a _taste_ of life with them back. “Whatcha thinking about, Levi-bro?” He lifted his head and blinked in confusion at her cocked head with those gems of eyes staring at him curiously. She scooted closer and set a hand on his upper arm and smiled sweetly, giving a soft laugh when he grabbed her hand and squeezed his over hers on his arm. She was there, and she was alive and well. “Say,” she bit her lip and looked around real quick before leaning in close, “you didn’t stay in the corps because you wanted a piece of Smith’s ass, did you?” The look on his face was priceless. He had so many expressions warping his face from disgust to humor, and Isabel couldn’t suppress a giggle as she toppled back into Farlan’s chest, holding her sides in laughter. Farlan gave a chuckle and hugged her close while Levi tried to scrub that image from his mind. It was bad enough that him and _Hanji_ had gotten drunk enough in college to do that kind of thing, he did _not_ want to think about banging her boyfriend.  
_“First off,_ he’s straight,” he stated and Isabel snorted in her laughing, making Farlan break out laughing. Levi scowled at how funny they found his torment. They were definitely family levels of close and annoying, and he didn’t even have the blood ties forcing him to be stuck with them yet he stayed. “Second, I did that with Hanji on accident, and _ew, no,_ I do not want her oaf of a boyfriend. Just, _no,”_ he groaned, making Isabel laugh harder and cry. She reached up and wiped the tears away and launched herself into his face by rolling onto her hands and knees.  
“Third! You have a green and yellow eyed beauty _All. To. Your. Self!”_ She punctuated each word with her fingers walking in his chest, flicking her fingers off of his chest before rolling back and laughing as confusion and shock overtook him. He was much more expressive in this life, and she loved it. She could see the emotions on his face, his reactions, something she had been deprived of originally.  
“What?” It was utter confusion on his face as Isabel sat back up and repeated herself in confusion. He didn’t understand. What green and yellow eyed beauty? She leaned forwards in a confused manner. Didn’t he know what his own boyfriend looked like?  
“Eren?” She tried a simpler approach. Surely Levi couldn’t forget his name? Not the name of a loved one. _Never_ the name of his loved ones. His eyes widened and he stared her down hard. She it her lip and tried to recall the name the boy had given her in the street while at gunpoint. “Yawger?”  
“Eren Yeager,” Levi whispered in disbelief. He leaned forwards and covered his mouth with his hands, staring in shock and disbelief at the blankets. His family was back, sitting with him and caring for him. That in itself was a miracle. He couldn’t be so lucky as to get them both. He just couldn’t. “Green and yellow eyes?”  
“Yeah his left eye is gold and the right is green. Shouldn’t you-”  
“You must have the wrong Eren. Eren had your eyes, Isabel, not green and yellow,” he stated dejectedly. She had been mistaken. Her description didn’t fit. She had mistaken an Eren for _his_ Eren. he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, pushing the fringe from his face. Isabel turned and looked at Farlan in confusion. The boy had known them by appearance and full name. How else would he know something like that if he hadn’t learned it from Levi?  
“Levi,” she whispered and set a hand on his shoulder. “I’m pretty sure it’s him. He recognized us by appearance and name because his _boyfriend_ had told him about those he saw as his family. He recognized us because he was _your_ Eren,” she gave a hopeful look as Levi stared into her eyes, wanting to believe her but seeing that there was a higher probability that it wasn’t him. Her words felt genuine, and he wanted so badly to believe them, but he didn’t want to get hurt by false hope again.  
“Levi, let me ask you something,” Farlan spoke up and looked in earnest at his brother, the man who made him a part of his family after having grown up without one. Levi, Isabel, and Farlan were family, blood and binding even without legitimate relations. Levi was their brother, and they were one unit that hurt when one piece felt pain. Levi had every reason to think that Isabel was wrong, but it was Levi who was wrong. “Did I have any birthmarks before?”  
“No, you had scars, but no birthmarks,” Levi replied, confused and perplexed. What did that have to do with anything?  
“ _Exactly._ I have a birthmark around my waist and Izzy has one around her throat. Birthmarks are in our genetics. If we have birthmarks now, then our genetics have changed,” he explained and realization lit up in his eyes. Heterochromia was genetic, not hereditary or even unlikely. All it took was for melanocytes to get lost and his outward appearance in his eyes would alter drastically. They had found his Eren, but he didn’t look the same as he remembered.  
“Where is he? Why wasn’t he with you guys?” The question shook his voice as he asked. He knew that Eren had not been among them when they came in. He would have seen the boy. He saw Marco, Armin, and Jean, but no Eren.  
“He and the girl went with an outsider. They needed antibiotics for a sick member of their group and a doctor. They made a deal. If they got the antibiotics to the group, then we would take their group in for the doctor’s uses in our group. It sounded like they knew the members of the group, trusted them even.” He nodded as Isabel explained. They still hadn’t committed names to mind other than Jean and Eren.  
“Where were they going to look for the antibiotics?” He had a faint inkling and he prayed, prayed to every god and goddess that may or may not exist, that he was wrong. If they thought the college was safe, they would die. Levi had been injured there, and Hanji had broken a pair of glasses there.  
“CSA.” The words hit like a bus. Eren and the group were not safe.  
They had no idea how much danger lurked there.  
They had no idea how to read the codes that he and Hanji had left all over the building.  
They had no idea of the layout.  
_They had no idea that it was a deathtrap._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: Hey guys, I know that I stated that I have a sketch of my Eren Yaeger for this story and I had NO idea how to embed it. I'd like to thank leftennant for her [tutorial](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2425535) on how to embed images and URL's! And, without further ado, I give you... Eren Yaeger in Out Of The Walls And Into The Apocalypse!  
> 


	18. *CSA pt3: Beaten By Bandits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: DO NOT SKIP BY THIS NOTE! This story is going to explore some dark topics from this point on and I shall not spare any detail that I find fitting for the story. From this part of the story on, I shall, in these notes at the start of each chapter, give a list, brief description, and level of intensity of the possibly triggering aspects of that chapter. The "Eagle's Nest" -as I call it- shall become your best friend for trigger warnings. That being said:  
> Chapter 18 deals with moderate assault/abuse, moderate choking, and mild rape. The acts are not explicit in nature nor are meant to romanticize the events taking place in this work. This chapter details a hostage situation and the molestation of a female minor. If any of this disturbs you, jump to the bottom of the page and view the "Trigger Sensitive Summary" I have provided at the bottom.

The light of the truck was bright, blinding to the point that they had to squint to look at mere silhouettes of the car and people. It was a tall pair of people and one was carrying what looked like a big gun and the other a pair of hatchets. They heard the taller of the two chuckle and cock the gun, a loud clicking of the firing pin being put into place. “Whatcha doing out here all alone?” The man next to him gave a hoarse, sinister cackle as he walked forwards, twirling the hatchets in his palms. “Two girls and a teenage boy,” he assessed and gave a scoff, “hardly the safest makeup for a group. Oh, and what’s this? A bat and an ax? You don’t even have good weapons!” He grinned slyly and approached, dressed in a bloodied white t-shirt with smeared handprints on it. He had a scar down the side of his face and a chain with handcuffs at the end tied around his waist. “It’d be a shame for something to happen to such innocent youths, like yourselves.” He reached forwards and put his hand under Mikasa’s chin before rubbing his thumb across her lips.  
“Don’t touch me,” she barked as she jerked away from him and gripped her knuckles white around the broom handle. He gave a bark of laughter and turned to his friend.  
“Look at that, Lyle, she’s got some fight in her,” he laughed and his friend gave a chuckle that was dark and could only be taken as creepy. Ymir fussed with the barbed wire around her bat, picking zombie flesh from the chords of steel. She didn’t look up as the man’s friend, Lyle they could safely assume from the man’s address of him, approached her. She simply picked at it harder before she glared up, flicking a chunk of rotted skin at the man. The piece struck him on the cheek and he scowled before reaching up and wiping at it. “Now, now, sweetheart, Lyle’s not very nice when you agitate him. He may be dumb as a board, but he’s a brute.” Ymir turned her gaze and dropped her bat to her side. They wore a red ring around their left eye, likely painted in blood from their victims, and the sight was too familiar. These guys were with the group that shot Erwin. Eren reached forwards and pulled Mikasa behind him. He had no doubt that Ymir could handle herself, and Mikasa surely could… if she had a proper weapon. The handgun she had in her back pocket was useless without any ammo. With only a broomstick in hand, she couldn’t do anything to them, and these guys were bad news.  
“We don’t want trouble,” Eren stated, adjusting his grip on the axe to have a firmer hold. The man laughed and set a hand on his shoulder. He leaned in close and Eren recoiled at the smell of the man’s breath; it reeked of alcohol and blood.  
“Glad that we’re in agreement, scout,” he stated and straightened up. The way the man called him the nickname was so sickening. These guys were sick in the head, and Eren could tell. He gasped as the man grabbed him roughly and got the barrel of the shotgun he was carrying under Eren’s chin, left hand wrangling the axe from his hand. The weapon clattered and Eren reached up to pull at the gun where it pressed into his throat through the bandana. Mikasa shouted and Ymir swung. These men had made the first move and now it was their turn.  
Ymir swung at Lyle and missed as the man cackled and dodged with a wobbly swerve. He weaved and swayed like a madman, and it set Ymir’s nerves on edge as Mikasa struck out at the man holding Eren. She hit him and it only took a kick or two for the man to have knocked her to her hands and get her under his lead filled boot. He knew how to fight while holding a hostage. “Silly girl, you’re messing with the wrong people.” Eren gasped as he tightened the hold of the gun against his throat and cut off his air supply. He gripped at the metal futilely and coughed as the man pulled him flush against his chest and made the hold harder to escape.  
Ymir was thankfully faring better against the bastard attacking her; for the moment at least. She struck and it landed, dragging bloody lines down the man’s arm. It was a brutal sight and the man cried out in pain, as gore poured from his arm. “You little bitch!” He swore and lunged at her, slamming into her with aggressive, bodily force and got her beneath him on the hard cement. He wrestled with her and managed to toss the bat far off to the side and pin her torso under his weight. “Now you’re going to get it! You ungrateful little slut,” he screeched and lashed out at her, fists beating into her face as she cried out and tried to block the blows with her arms.  
“Stop it!” Mikasa cried and shrieked out for their attackers to stop. She clawed and hit at the leg holding her to the cement and cried out in anger and fear. There was nothing they could do. They had been disarmed and pinned so easily. These guys were used to attacking and subduing people, and them? They were just a bunch of teenagers in way over their head. “Stop it!” The man chuckled and licked his lips before holding a sadistic gaze full of bloody and cruel lust on her.  
“That’s it, little girl, scream out for me! Cry for me! ‘Stop, stop!’” His voice was sadistically mocking and arrogant in every way that he was in a position to be. He pressed his boot down harder on her chest and she whined in pain. “We said we don’t want any trouble, but you three resisted! Now, we’re gonna take what we want and leave you,” he stated darkly, leaning down into Eren’s ear and made him look at the door of the school where the dead pushed at the metal doors, “for them to feast upon.”  
Ymir screamed out as Lyle hit her a final time and stopped to admire the damage he’d done. Her lip was split, her nose likely broken from the few good hits he’d gotten on it, and bruises littered her cheeks and temple. He chuckled and leaned down to her, running his hands up and down her face as he felt and pressed at the wounds that he had created. Ymir whimpered and swore in pain as she laid beneath him, hands pushing at his arms to stop touching her. “She’s cute, ain’t she, Lyle?”  
“She’s a purdy little lamb, Henry,” the man slurred and Ymir felt sick. She jerked and began fighting back, pushing and shoving and screaming at them as he reached back and felt her up through her pants. She clawed and pushed at his chest in panic. This was not happening! She kicked and shrieked at him to stop, tears filling her eyes. She dragged red lines down his forearm and yelled louder than she ever had. Her throat burned with the force of her shrieks and she tried to cross her legs and keep him from her, but he was stronger than she was. She couldn’t stop him. She could hardly slow his movements and buy herself time before the inevitable.  
How had they gotten here? Wasn’t this supposed to be a regular supply run, only with a specific goal of supplies? Get in, bash some skulls, get the antibiotics, and get out. That hadn’t happened. This should have been a normal run, an injury being the biggest problem at most. The supplies they needed not being there the only disaster.  
This was more than a disaster. They were absolutely screwed. Eren and Mikasa were subdued and Ymir was being molested by this bandit creep. They had never felt more hopeless. Eren had never felt so helpless, not even when his mother had died slowly of cancer and he _literally_ could do nothing to stop it. At least he could make her feel better back then. No comforting words would make this better, not for them and certainly not for Ymir. Only action would do any good, but Mikasa could hardly breathe under the weight of the boot and Eren was being strangled slowly but surely by the unrelenting press of the metal barrel.  
_“No! No, no, no! Don’t touch me!”_ Ymir cried out with a high pitch and shoved at the man’s chest as he slid his hand into the front of her pants. His hands were rough and scuffed as he groped at her, touching her in places that no man should ever touch her. _“Let go of me! No!”_ she kicked her leg and cried out in panic as he slipped his hand down further and began to fondle at her folds. Thick streams of tears slipped down her cheeks as she sobbed and weakly pushed at him, clawing and scratching to try to get him to stop. She shook in fear and wailed pitifully as she struggled beneath him as he continued to touch her, his partner relishing her cries. It hurt. He was rough and uncaring as he forced his fingers into her, dry and struggling, to play with her. She, a lesbian, was made a rape victim of a man. She cried out in pain and terror as he placed a hand on her throat and gripped tightly around the soft column of flesh.  
“As pretty as your cries are, shut the fuck up!” Those words ignited something deep within Eren. An anger coiled hot in his throat, and he felt time slow down. His mind became dizzyingly clear and he assessed the situation carefully in this moment of adrenaline driven clarity. He shifted his legs and managed to get a slight grip of his feet on the man’s shins and knees. He looked to Ymir and saw the bat lying down and remembered how she had beaten in skulls in the street. Blunt force. That was the answer. He pretended to flail and noticeably kicked Mikasa in the hip and made a finger gun as he held his arm down, the other struggling against the metal. Mikasa was about to yell at him, but she caught his sign. Her gun. He wanted her gun. But it was empty? She stared up at him in confusion, and he only flexed his hand urgently, insisting in silence, in response to her imploring gaze. She reached down and pulled it from her pocket and slipped it up into his hand. His fingers closed around it and carefully attempted to turn it and get a normal hand grip on it. The gun may be empty, but it was a half pound of strong metal. He gripped it and forced himself up enough to get a gulp of air before he shifted and placed his feet firmly against Henry’s knees and held himself up with his abs and legs while he reached back and grabbed the man’s head and swung his arm at the awkward angle with all of his might, pistol whipping the man over and over and over, striking until the man lost his grip on the gun and stumbled back off of Mikasa. Eren dropped to the cement gasping and coughing, bent over on his hands and knees. The shotgun laid, loaded and the safety turned off, a few feet in front of him as his attacker held his head and swore. By the time Henry had recovered from the shock of Eren’s attack, he had crawled the few feet and shakily risen from the floor and was pointing the weapon at the man’s chest. He had never used a shotgun before, but he would kill these fuckers if it was the last thing he did. They could not be left alive.  
“You don’t have the _guts_ , kid!” Henry spat at him and chuckled. He was bleeding from the temple and swaying slightly. The gun must have struck just right to create a gash and mess up his perception for a moment. The man was _dead wrong._ Eren did have the guts. He would prefer to chop this bastard up with his axe _piece by bloody piece_ and make the man suffer, but the shotgun was all he had the strength to use. He felt Mikasa help steady him and he raised the gun and attempted to use the sights to aim for the man’s head. He took a deep breath and lined up poorly, but shotgun ammo had a wide spread and his hit would likely kill. He felt his hand sweat as he steeled himself and placed his finger over the trigger. It was smooth under her finger and he counted down in his head as the man laughed at him, expecting the teen to chicken out at the last second.  
_‘Three._  
‘Two.  
‘One.’  
Bang!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Sensitive Summary:  
> Ymir, Eren, and Mikasa are confronted by two men donning the marks (rings around a single eye painted with blood) of the bandits that shot Erwin. Their names are Henry and Lyle. Henry is armed with a shotgun and Lyle with a pair of hatchets. They greet the group and after a few minutes of talking, Henry grabs and chokes Eren with the shotgun, pressing it across his throat as he knocks Mikasa to the ground and subdues the pair. Lyle and Ymir engage in a fight ending with Ymir being pinned and punched repeatedly in the head and face. Lyle begins to molest Ymir through her pants before touching her under her clothes. When Lyle starts to choke Ymir to quiet her, Eren has a moment of clarity from a spike of adrenaline where he devises a plan to escape Henry's grip. He has Mikasa hand him her empty gun and reaches back to repeatedly pistol whip his captor until he is released. He manages to get ahold of the gun that Henry had and points it at him, completely prepared to shoot. He counts down from three and the chapter ends with the sound of a gunshot.


	19. Rescued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle's Nest: Hey guys, I was wondering how you guys would feel about me giving my kik out to be more connected with you guy! Would that be something you're interested in?

Eren flinched and clenched his finger over the trigger at the sound of the gunshot that had preceded his own as an arrow of blue and white feathered fletchings drove into Henry’s skull, smoothly sliding through the flesh of one temple and out the other. It was slick with blood and the white of the arrow was tainted with his gore as Eren jumped back, flinching away from the shotgun in his hands as it buried a round into his attacker’s gut, tearing flesh and ripping the bloody fabric of the man’s shirt, painting it with the wearer’s guts and blood. He stepped on Mikasa’s toes and let the gun clatter to the ground, spent of shells and use. He stared down at this man, a monster in human flesh, who had willingly attacked him and Mikasa, tossed Ymir at the mercy of a rapist, and planned to dispose of them by tossing them to the infected in the halls of the college. He wanted to feel rage, satisfaction… something… but as he stared down at the corpse of his attacker, a bandit and a sadist, he could only feel the fear and paranoia settle deep in his chest, a little vermin that dug its claws into everything that it could reach. It sunk its tendrils into the deepest parts of his chest and mind and held his mind hostage from rationality and reality. “Y-Ymir,” he breathed and turned around, pressed into Mikasa as he looked over her shoulder at the girl lying on the ground, Lyle slumped over her body, unmoving.  
“Eren,” Mikasa stated and turned him to look at her. He was shaking slightly and his pupils were close to slits in his panic and paranoia. “Eren,” she insisted, urging him to look at her. He gave a brief glance at her before pushing past her. He stumbled in Ymir’s direction and Mikasa took a step to go after him until a voice shouted at her from up the hill where a second red truck was parked and a group of people, two men and a woman, were maneuvering down the hill with an unmistakable familiarity. They knew this land, and she was shocked to realize that they knew them better than they knew the land.  
“Mikasa! Are you guys alright?” The woman ran down the hill and sprinted across the way to the girl. She was all over her in a second, fussing and mothering the teen as she asked an endless list of questions while leaving no room to reply. “What were you thinking? How did this happen? What happened? Who were they? What did they do to you? Are you hurt? Do you need first aid? Were there others? Are you all alright?” Mikasa smiled and let the woman fuss over her as she twisted and turned and manhandled Mikasa around as she examined the girl for wounds and injury, glad to find none. “Did they touch you?” Hanji’s tone had slowed and turned serious, not the panicked and worried one that she had introduced herself in. Her brown eyes were dead serious and concerned. It was clear that Ymir had, Hanji had seen it through her sights and shot at the first chance she saw against Levi’s insistence that they survey the situation before opening fire. She was only lucky that the two men were all that were around, and Levi had quick reflexes and took down the other bandit before he could notice that something had happened to his friend. He had tensed up when he saw Eren handling the gun poorly and pointing it at the man’s chest. Eren had always hated guns, but he was desperate enough to take up the arm and pull the trigger, even if he hadn’t been the killer.  
“No, just Ymir. I was probably next,” she stated and Hanji set a comforting hand on her shoulder. Her hands were warm and she was gentle. She knew how it felt to be in their positions. All of their positions. It was part of the deal when your best friend and roommate was a thug in the gang rivalling the local group that they lived in. They lived behind enemy lines, and she had gotten so much mileage out of guilt tripping him for all the times she was beaten, attacked, kidnapped, and -once- molested by those who wanted to get to him and mistook her for his girlfriend. She knew how it was and how it felt.  
“Listen, it’s not going to happen, now. You’re safe with us, alright?” She grinned when Mikasa nodded and turned as Mike and Levi walked up. “Stick with Mike, he’ll keep you safe.”  
She walked over to where Eren was sitting with Ymir on the pavement and slowly knelt down beside them. He had tugged and pulled Lyle off of her and gladly become a shoulder to cry on when she recognized him and leaped up into his arms and clung for dear life to cry her heart out. Her hands gripped and dig harshly into his skin and jacket as she drenched his collarbone in warm tears. She whimpered and whispered brokenly, trying to talk but too shaken to speak even half decently. “He-he,” she croaked and clenched her fists into the coarse fabric of his jacket and pressed her face into his chest, trembling and shaking beyond repair, “t-touched… Oh god.” He held her close and rubbed her back soothingly as she scooted closer to him, basically clambering into his lap to fall apart in his protection. “I-I….” Her broken whispers were what hurt the most. Ymir had always been strong and indifferent, but this assault on her person had reduced her to a sobbing, terrified mess in his arms. He shushed her and urged her to not speak, knowing without her needing to tell him. He had been there, had seen it, and he needed no explanation. She could cry, and he would think no less of her for it. She curled up against him and cried, ignoring the fact that Eren had begun talking to Hanji from where they were sitting.  
Eren gave her a broken smile and the woman nodded, reaching forwards and pulling Eren into a gentle hug. She reminded him of his mom, always had, and he had always thought that she would make a great mother in a life more like the one they had been in before the apocalypse hit. “Are you alright,” she asked softly, resting a hand on Ymir’s back and rubbing soothingly. He looked down at Ymir and bit his lip. He shook his head and Hanji’s heart gave out to them. It was a traumatic experience, being held hostage and nearly being raped or seeing your friend be molested against their will. They wouldn’t be able to sleep well for the next week at least. “It’s alright, you guys are safe now,” she assured and Eren nodded, glad to feel Ymir claiming a little, from acceptance or exhaustion or a clear mind he didn’t know, but he didn’t particularly care why. She needed to calm down and she was. It was a step in the right direction. “Are one of you injured? Open wounds, aching muscles, anything,” she insisted and Eren tensed. He was bit on the arm, and Hanji was looking them over. Ymir poked her head up and Hanji gasped. Thick streams of blood poured from the brunette's temple where the man had cracked his fist into the tender flesh and left an ugly laceration in his wake. “How badly does that hurt?”  
“A-al...t” Her words were broken, but Hanji understood them. It was bad. An open wound on the head that hurt a lot was never a good sign. She laid a first aid kit on the ground and pulled a cloth from it and covered it in hydrogen peroxide before dabbing and wiping gently at Ymir’s forehead. Ymir swore and clutched at Eren’s shoulders in pain while Hanji cleaned and bandaged the wound, pushing her bangs from her face and wrapping the fabric around her head. Ymir gave a soft smile with a whispered thank you before leaning back into Eren. It was pathetic, the way she was curled up in his lap and hugging at him like a child, but he was safe. She could trust him to keep others from hurting her right now, and she needed that.  
“Why are you here?” Hanji blinked in question at Eren’s blunt question and tilted her head like a dog in confusion. What did he mean? Why? To save him and the girls, of course! What did he think they were there for? “How did you know to come to our rescue?” So that was it. He was confused that they had gotten so lucky.  
“Isabel told us. Said three of the group went to CSA, and to be honest, this place is a death trap waiting to happen. The campus’ enrollment is about fifty-six thousand with a staff of a thousand teachers. That’s a lot of dead ones,” she joked and he cracked a weak smile. “Anyways, we came running when we heard,” she stated, and there was a gentle warmth in his chest. They had others looking out for them. They weren’t alone anymore. They finally had an adult with them. “Anyways, was anyone bitten,” she inquired as she reached into the first aid kit and pulled a pocket knife from it. He panicked for a moment. She caught his alarm and made a placating gesture, “oh no! I’m not going to- oh my! I wouldn’t kill them! I figured out how to use a hot blade to neutralize a bite. If I catch it in the first three hours, I can cauterize the bite to death and kill the infected cells.” He took a deep breath and nodded. He timidly offered an arm out to her, the bite visible through the torn shirt’s fabric. “Ouch,” she murmured and looked back up to his eyes, “how old?” He estimated an hour and a half and she nodded. That was early enough. “We can do it at the camp; it’s safer there than here.” He nodded and she urged helped them get up, ending up piggybacking Ymir as the girl buried her face in the scientist’s cool hair that was let down from her signature ponytail. Eren walked next to her, staring at the ground in thought as they headed back over towards where Mikasa stood, talking with Mike about what had happened.  
“Did you notice any markings?” Mikasa nodded and detailed the red ring they wore around their eye, noting that they both wore shirts with bloody hand prints on them. “Hanji,” he called as she walked up with the pair, “sounds like they were from the bandits in Parkington.” She groaned and called to the man kneeling at the body if Henry and pulling his pockets inside out and examining the contents. A pocket knife, cigarettes, a lighter, sharpened scissors, and a set of keys to the cuffs on his belted chain of a set of handcuffs. He looked up and listened as she insisted that he identify them, calling back that they were from Parkington, for sure.  
“This big lug must be a scouting leader,” he stated and Hanji swore vehemently. They had enough trouble with the infected, and now they had killed scouters for the Parkington group. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice one of their own missing. “Pall Malls,” he questioned as he picked up the cigarette box, “ _tch!_ Cheap bastard.” He tossed it back down and gathered up the knife and lighter from the pile. He rose and faced them, his heart softening when he saw Eren looking up at him, staring with his lips parted slightly. He gave the boy a smile and walked up, making Eren freeze in shock. That smile had been such an open, honest expression and they weren’t alone. The years had changed Levi. He was more expressive and honest, and Eren loved it. 


	20. Bright Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle’s Nest: Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope your day was great with or without a special someone in it! I have some very special fanarts that I would love to share with you! The first entry is by xXxEchoCatxXx with a drawing of Eren that I think is pretty spot on!  
>   
> The second entry is by Whatisthisusernamereally!  
>   
> You guys are all so great! Thank you so much!

He couldn’t believe it. They had just survived two horrifying experiences in a row, barely getting out of them alive and sane, and now here he was, standing in front of Levi, the only person to have never cared _what_ he was because he knew _who_ he was and loved him for it. He could barely comprehend the facts laid before him. He was alive, he was alright, he had Levi right there, and yet, he was afraid. So much had happened over the course of a few hours, and now, thoughts sprung up from the dark recesses of his mind and began plaguing him. He was not who or what Levi had known him to be… What if he rejected who he was now?  
__**“Bright Eyes,”** god how that name had made his heart flutter in years past, but now, it sent anxiety down his spine. He wasn’t his beautiful green-eyed boyfriend, no, he had a deformed, abnormal colored set of eyes that paled the world’s beauty and looked like he had doused an emerald beauty in acid and left the gold tarnish in its place.  
He felt his breath hot on his face as the bandana on his face captured the warmth and kept it to his body. That bandana was hiding a hideous mark of foolishness and death. The bite was an ugly thing the way it had scabbed over and bubbled in the death sequence of the cells attacked by his own immune, defensive cells. It itched and ached on his skin, reminding him that it was there, disfiguring his face and making him afraid to be without his red fabric barrier from the world.  
He felt the years of being told that he would never be anything in this world. He was a successful, legendary soldier adorning several pages of every high school history book, but in this world, he was too impulsive and unskilled to make anything of himself. He had a lifetime of fighting skills, split second timing, and courage, but he wasn’t good enough for most careers. He had little in his future, that’s what they told him. And now he really felt it. He wasn’t good enough for the man standing before him anymore.  
“Eren,” Levi breathed and stepped forwards, into Eren’s personal space and the boy recoiled from the proximity and his own mind. Worry crossed over Levi’s face and Eren paled. This wasn’t okay. He had to keep his distance. He was bit, could be kil- no, Hanji had said that wouldn’t happen. He felt Levi’s slate grey gaze on him as the man took another step forwards and reached out to grab Eren’s hand gently in his own. It felt so nice after so long of being without his lover, just sharing that minimal contact. Eren couldn’t pull away. He wanted to, needed to, but he couldn’t. It felt too nice, perfectly familiar in this hell of confusion that was swarming him. “It’s ok, we’re here now. You’re safe,” Levi offered and took another slow step forwards as Eren froze. He thought that Eren was skittish because of what had just happened. He wanted to say that he was beyond what had happened, but that would be a lie. He might not be reacting this way because of that, but it was still on his mind, in his skin. Levi reached up and cupped Eren’s cheek through the bandana’s cloth, “I’m here, Er-”  
Eren jerked back and removed himself from his boyfriend. “Don’t! Please!” His face ached and his bite burned. It was tender and that gentle touch had agitated it barely, but the panic in his mind sent the nerves into overdrive. It was too personal, too vulnerable and open of a wound. Jean had multiple times said that he could take the bandana off at night to rest, but he refused. That bandana was safe. It was a facade and it kept others from knowing what he truly was. Behind that mask, he was licking his wounds, and that gentle touch of Levi’s hand was a tidal wave against a glass door. His safety net had been swiped out from under him. Levi had been too close to knowing, too close to prodding at wounds that refused to close no matter how much he licked at them like a dog after a fight. “I-I just,” he stuttered and stumbled, backing up slowly, trying to run from this situation. He backed into Mike and yelped in shock. He whipped his head around and got a ring of concerned faces before he ducked between Mike and Hanji and made for the cars on the hill.  
Distance.  
He needed distance.  
Distance was good.  
Yeah, distance was good.  
Levi stood with all eyes on him, shocked and unsure of what to make of the situation. He turned to Mikasa and walked up to her, gesturing for Hanji and Mike to continue on what they had been doing prior to their little scene developed. “I’m sorry sir, he-”  
“He’s scared. The attack must have wigged him out. I was too forward so recently after an assault on his person,” he decided and she stood in shock. Levi was taking the blame. His words and expression said nothing of blaming himself for Eren’s reaction, yet he was taking responsibility for the strange behaviour. She wished that she could hate him, could truly say that he was bad for Eren, but she couldn’t. He was good to him and Eren was happy with him. It didn’t make sense why he had ran from Levi like an abuse victim in the same room as an abuser. She knew that it wasn’t that Levi had done wrong by him, but she couldn’t figure out for the life of her why he had run after telling her in high school that he hoped to find him.  
They had found him, hadn’t they?  
“Are you alright,” Levi asked, curious about how she had fared in the fight that had taken place. She pointed out some sore muscles and Levi mentioned that Petra had been in massage therapy school for a year. The idea sounded good to the girl. “Come on, we need to get back,” he stated and she nodded, walking timidly beside him as she thought hard. Why did Eren panic and run? It didn’t make sense. “I’m glad we got here in time.” She nodded and thanked him, the man shrugging in reply, “I was scared the infected would get to you, but it was bandits that we needed to worry about. We’ve seen a group from Parkington up the freeway that keep hanging around the town. I didn’t think they’d ever catch any of us, but then I heard from Isabel that you guys were here and…” He ran a hand through his hair and looked sincerely at her, “I’m just glad that you are all alright, even if a little banged up and scarred.” She smiled and nodded, glad to see the open side of him for once. He flicked open the pocket knife in his hand and stared into the reflection of it, frowning at the long bangs that dipped into his face. He needed to get Hanji to cut it again.  
“I’ll be honest,” she began and started walking towards the truck, Levi folding the knife and began trailing behind her. “I don’t know why Eren acted like that. In highschool, when we met, he talked about finding you. He wanted to so badly, so I’m not sure why he ran from you,” she sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear and paused. Levi was listening intently as he fussed with the strap of his crossbow over his shoulder. “I’ll talk to him,” she assured and he nodded. There were no rules in this world, not anymore. If he hurt Eren, she could gut him and no one would punish her for it, but she knew that it wouldn’t happen. As much of an asshole Levi was, he cared more than he dared to admit. He thanked her and made his way up to the bandit’s truck where Mike was sitting in the driver’s seat, fussing with some issue in the car.  
He leaned against the rolled down the window and looked in, “Is it any good?” The car was banged up and a wreck, but if it ran, they would get the tank’s worth out of it should Mike deem it safe to drive. The blonde shook his head and set a hand on the dashboard, wiping the dust that sat there. “It’s filthy, that’s for sure, but will it run?”  
“It will, but the stick is messed up, and with it being a stick shift,” he assessed and Levi opened the door for him, letting the man climb out. He looked the vehicle over and sighed. “I say we scrap it for parts. Hook up the tow and bring it back to pull apart,” he admitted and the shorter man nodded, looking the car over. It’s metal panels were dented and had spikes driven through them, but the tires and mechanical components looked good. It would come in handy should Hanji’s truck begin to fail. “What do you think?”  
“You’re the mechanic here, I’m with you. Get the cable and hook this piece of shit up, I’m going to climb into the back and see if they had anything stashed back there,” he stated as he climbed into the front seat and maneuvered himself over the center console and into the back of the two door. He grimaced at the mess of trash and food left in the back seat but dug around anyways. If they had weapons or anything of use stashed back there, they could use it.  
Hanji was careful as she dropped Ymir into the back seat of her own truck, easing the girl down and scooting her further in before climbing in as well and pulling the girl close. Ymir was shaky, but she had stopped crying and sobbing, comfortable and comforted by her presence. If they wouldn’t kill a bitten Eren, they wouldn’t harm her for a betrayal in her past life. She smoothed the tangled hair out with her fingers and gently scratched at spots on the girl’s head, causing her to relax further and lean into her limply, tired. It had taken so much out of her to fight, scream, struggle, and cry. She was tired and weak, but she didn’t mind with Hanji there to coddle her and protect her. She smiled softly at the thought that Hanji was a thousand times more motherly than she was allowed to show in the Survey Corps. It would have been unprofessional for a squad leader to hold and cuddle a soldier like this, regardless of who was around to see. It was perfect for her, though. Hanji was motherly, very much so, and she did well at comforting and easing even the most closed off of people, likely from living with Levi for three consecutive lives. She felt the young girl curl up against her and begin to drift off in her warmth. She smiled and turned her head to look out the window, catching a glimpse of Mikasa and Eren talking, unable to hear it through the closed doors, but she assumed that she wouldn’t have been able to hear it any ways from how close they were to each other, talking in a secretive, personal manner. She saw Eren wipe at his face, smearing his tears on his cheek as she reached forwards and hugged him, her eyes tracking Levi as he searched the truck, but her eyes spoke not of malice but of worry and sympathy. She took a step back and cupped Eren’s face, speaking gently to him and what Hanji wouldn’t give to know what they were saying, but it wasn’t her place to pry or eavesdrop. She watched fondly as Mikasa gently wiped Eren’s tears with her thumbs and gave him earnest looks as she spoke, reassuring him and helping him come to terms with the demons in his head. When she finished talking, she hugged him tight and let him get it out of his system, the pair swaying slightly against one another as she comforted him. It took a few minutes before they broke apart and headed towards the truck as Levi walked up, free of the disaster that the other car was. “What did you find,” she whispered at him and he gave her a perplexed look before he noticed that Ymir had fallen asleep against her. He reached in and set a pair of ammo boxes on the flat space of the center console. They were Federal 12 gauge ammo, and she smiled. “That’s good, and we got the gun for it from them, too. Anything else?”  
“Just the hatchets,” he stated and sat down in the driver's seat, turned with his legs out the door and looking back at Hanji and Ymir, catching a glimpse of Eren and Mikasa helping Mike get the tow cable attached firmly to the other car. “Mike dumped those along with the axe in the back of the truck.”  
“At least it’s something. I’m just glad the three of them are alright,” she stated and rested her head back on the worn leather of the seat. He nodded and watched as Eren helped heave the chain over to Mike and held it in place while Mike hooked the truck to their own. He picked up a box of ammo and grabbed the shotgun lying on the passenger seat. “I’m going to take post.”  
“Sounds good, want to leave your crossbow with me?” He shook his head as she closed her eyes and yawned. He looked over the gun and pumped it, pushing the shell of Eren’s shot out into the space between the seat and console. “Did you just?” He cut her off with a denial and she laughed. “We ain’t getting that out ever again.”  
“Shut it four eyes, I’ll keep the crossbow and take post. You have her to look after,” he insisted and climbed out, noticing that she barely replied, making a soft noise of agreement as she drifted off in the back seat. She’d been up all day working strenuously on the electrical connection issues and she was tired. He climbed out quietly and walked up to where Mike was getting the final part of the rig done, standing up and approaching him. “Hooked up?” The man nodded and Levi set the shotgun down in the flatbed of the truck and turned to Eren and Mikasa, “Go ahead and hop on into the truck, I left room for you both,” he stated before setting a foot on the wheel and climbing over the side of the flatbed.  
“You’re riding in the back?” Mikasa’s voice was concerned, not sure that she liked the idea of anyone riding back there. Levi nodded and grabbed the straps they had rigged up in the back, one around his ankle and one around his nondominant wrist.  
“Someone always does if it’s more than two of us. We take post and serve as a guard. Hanji and your friend are asleep in the back seat, so I’m guard since we have a truck attached. Best shot of the group camps out in the back,” he replied, telling them exactly how things ran between them. She looked at the ropes and realized that they were there to keep him in much the same was a seatbelt, but allowing for as much motion as he needed. “It’s fine. You guys must be tired, so go sit up in the cabin.” She gave a reluctant nod as Levi sat down and started loading a pair of shells into the gun, fingers dexterous and familiar with the action, speaking of years of experience in silence. She gently tugged on Eren’s jacket and he moved to follow her. Her words still echoed in his head, but he was still uncertain. He climbed into the back seat with Ymir and Hanji while Mikasa jumped into the front with Mike and they talked quietly, scarcely during the drive, asking about the military base and the group when she thought of a question. Eren turned his head and looked through the back window and watched as Levi sat and scanned the sides of the road intensively, lifting the gun and shooting down an infected or two that got a little too close to the car for comfort.  
The drive wasn’t long and Eren watched their ridiculous system to get the keys over and back. It was all too complicated. Why didn’t they lock it from the inside? He smiled when he saw Armin run up to throw open the car door and hug him tight. He laughed and hugged the boy back, the pair stumbling back and ending up on the floor as Jean walked up. He expected a crude joke or a rude welcome, but was pleasantly surprised when Jean offered to help the pair up, “Welcome home, Yaeger.” He took the hand and was pulled up and given a brief hug with one arm as they pressed their arms between their chests before Jean walked off, heading over to help Mike as he unhooked the bandit truck.  
“Thank god!” He whipped his head around and stared at Isabel standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She ran up and gave him a hug. “I was so worried! We had no idea that CSA would be so dangerous! When I told Levi, fuck, he looked like you were dead for sure! That place must be-” she paused and looked at the bruising line across his throat, “holy shit. What happened?”  
“Parkington,” Mike supplied and Isabel scowled. Petra had been telling her about the issues they had in the area, the Parkington bandits being one of them. “They’ve had a hard time, give them some space,” he suggested and she nodded.  
“Are you alright,” she asked and Eren nodded, reaching back and tightening the bandana from the struggle when it loosened. Mikasa’s words may have given him some confidence with Levi, but he still felt vulnerable without the crushing press of the fabric. “I’m glad. Here, let me show you where the barrack is, so you can try to get some rest.” He nodded and followed her to the second building in from the door. “The building next door is another barrack, but for now, we should stay in the same one unless Levi and Hanji decide that genders should be split, but I doubt that they will. The three rows from the fireplace are full, you and your friends can take the fourth set,” she explained and he nodded, sitting down on the fourth bed from the fire and lying down, sighing deeply. “I’ll,” she began, feeling awkward about standing there as he lay fighting with his mind, “I’ll go and leave you to rest.”  
“Isabel,” he called as she turned for the door. She spun on her heel and faced him where he lay on his side, facing her on the cot. “Can I ask you something?” She nodded and walked up, sitting down on the foot of his bed. “It’s personal and I want it to stay between us.”  
“That’s fine, Eren,” she assured and he nodded, relaxing against the tense feeling in his body. “What is it?”  
“I’m concerned about Levi,” he admitted and she cocked her head, shocked by the admittance. “I mean, I’m scared about him and me.” She nodded and leaned into the bars of the footboard.  
“What about it is worrying,” she asked and he sighed, rubbing his eyes. Of course, she didn’t know, only Mikasa and himself did.  
“I’m not who and what he fell in love with,” he stated and sat up. “I’m different, and I look every kind of different,” he could feel his voice straining and he sighed, buying his face in his knees. His voice was muffled because of it, but he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn. “I’m not… I’m not _his_ Eren anymore, ya know?” He hid his eyes, unable to take the look of confusion - and was that disappointment?- that he saw in her gentle, ocean eyes. He bit his lip and waited for her to reply. She was quiet for a long moment.  
“I doubt that he would agree,” she replied, voice soft with a light tone to it. “Say, Levi-bro, you don’t agree with that, do you?” Eren jerked his head up and saw Levi leaning against the entry, a sympathetic look on his face. Isabel had a soft smile as she leaned forwards and kissed the top of his head. His eyes showed betrayal, angry at the girl for not saying anything about someone listening in on the conversation, but when she spoke under her breath, all that anger faded away, “You worry too much,” she promised and walked away, stepping carefully past Levi and shutting the door behind her, leaving the pair alone.  
It was quiet for a good moment while Levi coordinated his thoughts and Eren dreaded what he would say. _‘I can’t believe you’d think so little of me!’ ‘Why did you change?’ ‘Isabel was wrong, I don’t love you anymore.’_ Why was it only horrible thoughts? He used to only think the world of Levi, so why was he letting his own insecurities bleed over into how he saw his boyfriend? Why was he letting this thought consume him? That wasn’t even a question; he knew why. He was terrified of being rejected. He didn’t want to lose Levi after having just found him again. “Eren,” he breathed and the boy curled in tighter on himself. Here it was. The moment of truth. He heard footsteps on the floor and a dip on the end of the bed where Isabel had sat. The hand that was set on his arm was gentle and kind, it was cold but it felt nice regardless. “I would never think anything less of your for what you look like or what you have become in this fucked up world.” He lifted his head and found Levi smiling gently at him, scooting closer to hold his hand. He gave a genuine smile and bared his wrist from under the fabric of one of Hanji’s flannels. Bled into the skin in greens, blues, and golds was the wings of freedom with a blue wing and a green wing filled with elaborate designs of swirls and curls. Eren’s key was the base of the drawing, the wings unfurling from the familiar image painted on his pale skin in vibrant and warm hues. At the top of the key was a cursive, spiraling and beautiful set of words. __**“Bright Eyes.”** Eren stared down at it and Levi brought a hand up and cupped his cheek. “Nothing has changed. You’re still my Bright Eyes, Eren,” he promised and ran his fingers through the scruffy brown locks. He ran his hands gently over the younger’s arms and froze when he felt his forearm. It was slick with blood and the bite was deep into the flesh of his arm. He had taken a direct bite, full on and full force. It was scabbing over and bubbling in a way that Levi had never seen a bite act. “You’re bit.”  
“Thanks for noticing,” he grumbled in reply, reaching up to scratch at the one under his bandana. He jerked when Levi grabbed his wrist and gently pulled it down.  
“You’ve been bit before,” he deduced and Eren nodded. Eren tried to scoot back when Levi reached up to his face again. “Relax,” he insisted and Eren stared at his slate eyes. The look in his eyes was careful and caring as he looked at the mask of a bandana. His hands were gentle on his arm and shoulder as he scooted up closer to his lover. “Can I-”  
“No!” Eren blinked in surprise at the volume of his own voice before looking down. “No,” he repeated quieter. He took Levi’s hands in his own and held them on his lap, tightening when Levi flexed his fingers. He didn’t want to be touched. His bites ached and he bit his lip to hold in a groan at the sensation. It hurt. “Please, I want it on,” he explained and Levi nodded, trying to understand the way that Eren was hiding behind the mask. This strip of fabric was him not just hiding a bite but himself as well. He was hiding, and whether it was from this new world, from his friends, or from himself, Levi didn’t know, but he didn’t care. He had Eren back and he would help him with whatever this was. “Sorry,” he offered and Levi smiled.  
“No need, but,” he dragged and gave him a loving smile. “I would like a kiss after so long without you,” the words sounded like a promise to the boy and he grinned wide under his bandana before his face dropped. He wouldn’t take off the bandana, so how would they? He thought hard as Levi patiently waited. Those grey eyes were too sweet, too understanding. He couldn’t deny him what he himself wanted.  
“Close your eyes,” he insisted, laughing when Levi did as he asked while muttering a “weird brat,” to make Eren bark out indignantly even as the words made a warmth spread in his chest. He released his boyfriend’s hands and brought a hand up to his bandana, turning it to cover the bit more than his mouth, lifting up the extra bit that remained before leaning forwards and pressing his lips to Levi’s grinning into the kiss as the man raised his hand and threaded the digits through the thin hairs of his lower neck, pulling him closer. Eren sighed into the kiss, loving the soft feel of Levi’s lips on his own chapped ones, having missed this intimacy for years. He didn’t even mind when Levi brought a hand up to his cheek and cupped the bare skin there before dragging his hand down to wrap around his waist. They kissed and licked gently at each other's lips for a sweet moment before pulling apart the barest amount. “I love you,” Eren admitted and wrapped his arms around the man’s shoulders.  
“God, I’ve missed you, Eren,” he whispered and grinned as a blush painted over the exposed parts of his cheek and nose. “I love you, too, and I’m not losing you again.” Eren blushed and smiled, hating how hard it was for him to control his expressions when Levi spoke to him with such love and reverence. Levi didn’t give him a chance to reply, stealing another slow and loving kiss as he pulled Eren closer. They sat there, kissing and holding each other close for who knows how long, relearning each curve and crack in each other’s lips and where each muscle turned into the next.  
“If you two are done getting handsy, Hanji needs to bring Ymir in!” They jolted when they heard Izzy yell at them through the door, the little crack revealing that she had been watching. Nosy little sister. Eren turned red and Levi laughed. “I almost hate to interrupt, I wanted to see some action!”  
“It wasn’t going there, you fucking voyeur,” Levi tossed back and Isabel snorted with a sarcastic reply before opening the door the rest of the way, helping hold it open for Hanji as she hauled the sleeping girl in her arms. “Need some help?”  
“You’ve got your arms full,” she replied with a sly smile and a wink. She knew that Levi was telling the truth that their little makeout session had been purely emotional and was not heading towards sexual, even as they felt each other up. Years apart made you long for contact, familiarizing yourself with the other. “Petra made you some dinner, Eren,” she offered and he nodded, tugging his bandana back into place, feeling exposed with Hanji looking at him. “I’d go get some and get to bed, everyone is tired and will be coming in to sleep soon. It’d be best if you ate and went to sleep with them.” The boy nodded and moved to stand up, Levi letting him go as the boy made his way for the door, watching him leave with a fond smile on his face.  
“Should I take post for the night,” he offered and she shook her head. He stood and helped her get the young girl in the bed.  
“You take your bed for the night. Spend some time with Eren. I won’t sleep anyways, not after seeing that bastard on Ymir earlier. I feel sick to my stomach and I’d be too restless. I’ll take post,” she explained and he nodded, thanking her for letting him have his time with Eren. “I’d want you to do the same for me if I found Erwin.”  
“I will when we find him.”


	21. Update: Where has Eagle been?

Eagle's Nest: Hi guys! GUESS WHAT! I'm not dead! yayyy..... Ok, so, life sucks. Time, inspiration, and motivation, the three things that you never have the right quantities of each at the same time. I have been on summer vacation headed into my last year at school, and I have been run ragged from my summer. I went to Guatemala, have babysat 3 kids every other week, worked long hours in the hot sun on my weekends, done AP Psychology homework, and started driver's ed all at once! This summer has been hectic. Time has eluded me. Writer's block has kicked my butt. I have not had the energy when I have been able to write to actually make myself sit at the computer and be productive in my creative pursuits. This story is not done yet. I'll be honest, I have never finished an actual story, and I hate when writers make good stories and never finish them! But... I can explain why and try to fix that with this story.

I always seem to forget the basics of writing when creating a piece of fiction for fun... A plot chart, goals for each character, and a chart to track what each character has seen, done, been through, accomplished, and obtained. Basically, I wrote this story with zero plot in place to march towards. Does it show? Either way... I have a plan to try to go back and create "Adventure logs" and profiles for each character, create a map, and a plot to follow through. So, keep an eye out for updates as they come, and hopefully, when everything has been worked out, that weekly schedule can get back up and running! 

Until then!  
-Eagle signing off.


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